WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The Haliburton company has agreed to pay $559 million to settle U.S. charges one of its subsidiaries bribed Nigerian officials, industry observers say.
The alleged bribery involved the awarding of contracts for the construction of a gas plant, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal said the amount would be the largest paid by a U.S. company in a bribery investigation, far more than the record $44 million fine against U.S. oil-field services firm Baker Hughes Inc. in 2007 for alleged improper payments in Kazakhstan.
The reported settlement amount would still be less than that collected from Germany's Siemens AG, which agreed in December to pay $800 million in U.S. fines. The fines settled bribery investigations involving alleged payments worldwide to government officials to win contracts.
Neither Baker nor Siemens admitted to the allegations as part of the settlements.
The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on the Halliburton case, and Halliburton, an oil-field services company, declined to say whether it would admit the charges in the proposed settlement, the Journal said.
The report said investigations are continuing in Europe and Nigeria.
