20101128
reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-corruption police have raided the offices of U.S. firm Halliburton and arrested 12 people in a bribery case involving former Halliburton unit KBR Inc, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had detained 10 Halliburton staff for questioning and one senior employee each from oil services firms Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd and Technip Offshore Nigeria Ltd.

"We are still looking for the (local) managing director of Halliburton," EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said.

Those detained in Thursday's raid, carried out with the assistance of armed police, included Giuseppe Surace, Saipem's country manager, and Frank Pliya from Technip, as well as a mixture of expatriates and Nigerians, Babafemi said.

Houston-based engineering firm KBR pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas project.

KBR and Halliburton reached a $579 million settlement in the United States but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.

KBR split from oilfield services giant Halliburton in 2007.

A former aide to Nigeria's ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded not guilty in October to six counts of money laundering in relation to the case between 2002-2003, including accepting $1.5 million in bribe payments.

His case was adjourned to December 16.