According
to Premium Times report, new files obtained from HSBC, a huge global
bank based in London, by the French newspaper Le Monde and the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ, show ties
between Tesler and some high-ranking Nigerians raising the possibility
of renewed questions about Nigeria’s handling of the affair.
The
Halliburton bribery scandal, which dates back to 1994 when the Nigerian
government launched ambitious plans to build the Bonny Island Natural
Liquefied Gas Project, had revealed a network of secretive banks and
offshore tax havens used to funnel
$182 million in bribes
to Nigerian officials in exchange for $6 billion in engineering and
construction work for an international consortium of companies that
included a then Halliburton subsidiary.
An investigation
conducted into the scandal in 2010 had seen former U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney, who was CEO of Halliburton before he was elected, indicted
by Nigeria.

British Lawyer, Jeffry Tesler. Photo Credit: Premium Times
Though Cheney was later clear when Halliburton worked out a $35 million settlement.
Earlier
investigations had revealed that Tesler began planning the bribe
payments in 1994 and transferred small amounts of money through
Switzerland in July 1996. But by 2003, his role had escalated.
According
to an official Nigerian report, Tesler had in 2010 in the Nigerian
capital, Abuja, directed the drop-off of a travel bag stuffed with $1
million in $100 bills in the foyer of a luxury hotel where the per-night
cost of a suite can exceed the nation’s average annual income of
$3,000.
It was reported that it was one of at least 20 money transfers that Tesler made or directed.
The
cash was reportedly destined for Nigeria’s ruling party via the
state-owned oil and gas company, the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).
However, the new files obtained by Le Monde
and ICIJ show that nine people, including members of the Tesler family
and Nigerian nationals, held a variety of roles with accounts at HSBC
Private Bank (Suisse) between 1990 and 2003 — months before the
completion of the gas plant.
Nine of the 12 accounts instructed HSBC to keep all correspondence under lock and key in a bank safe.
The
leaked files also reveal that Tesler had financial ties to two former
Nigerian officials: now-retired Major General Chris Garuba, chief of
staff to former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar who himself
allegedly received bribes as president; and Andrew Agom, a senior
government official who was killed in an attack on a motorcade.
Garuba,
a former governor of Northeastern Bauchi state, is now chairman of
Obekpa Petroleum, a Nigerian oil company. Before his death, Agom was a
board member of the Peoples Democratic Party, which controlled the
government when this affair unfolded.

The
HSBC files identify Chris Garuba and his wife Rita as HSBC clients;
their names are listed along with Tesler’s in an account named
Bridlington Enterprises Limited, for which Tesler acted as an attorney.
The
files show that the account was opened the year before Tesler sent his
first bribe payment to Switzerland, although the files do not show that
Tesler transferred money into the Bridlington account, which held as
much as $367,547 in 2006 or 2007.
Meanwhile, Tesler, now 66,
has served his sentence and returned to England, where he told
authorities he would “spend the last few years, which God may graciously
grant me, to seek forgiveness.”
In Nigeria,
anti-corruption campaigners continue
to call on authorities to identify and prosecute Nigerian citizens
involved in the scandal. While never publicly released, a 2010 Nigerian
government document reportedly included three Nigerian presidents, a
vice-president, a minister, intelligence chiefs and corporate titans in a
list of bribery beneficiaries. The report did not name Garuba or Agom.
While
speaking on the Halliburton bribery scandal in a recent interview with
ICIJ, Dauda Garuba, Nigeria coordinator at the Natural Resource
Governance Institute, said:
“In terms of the personalities and the amount of money involved it is probably the biggest scandal in Nigeria’s history.
“Although
we’ve seen the indictment and conviction of foreign companies and their
top executives in Europe and America, Nigeria’s own government has not
taken action in the very country in which the