Say Anything Blog

HOUSTON — Albert J. Stanley, a former executive with a Halliburton subsidiary, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges that he conspired to pay $182 million in bribes to Nigerian officials in return for contracts to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas complex.

Mr. Stanley, 65, had been chief executive of KBR, Halliburton’s large engineering and construction unit, until December 2003. Halliburton cut off all ties with him in 2004 after he was accused of secretly enriching himself by as much as $5 million in the payment and kickback scheme. KBR was spun off from Halliburton last year.

Some of the payments were made while Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s chief executive, but neither he nor Halliburton has been accused of being part of the scheme.

Under a plea agreement entered in United States District Court in Houston, Mr. Stanley admitted that he authorized the hiring of two consulting companies to pay bribes to several Nigerian government officials while KBR entered into four contracts with a Nigerian liquefied natural gas company whose largest shareholder was the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Mr. Stanley pleaded guilty to paying $132 million to one consulting company and more than $50 million to the other. He said that he intended that the fees would be used to bribe Nigerian government officials. Mr. Stanley also admitted that he had received $10.8 million in kickbacks from a consultant he had hired.

Under his plea agreement, Mr. Stanley faces a prison sentence of seven years and payment of $10.8 million in restitution.