Turning Over Stones

Where will the latest troubles at Halliburton subsidiary KBR lead? From this morning's Wall Street Journal (subscription):

Halliburton Co. cut ties to Albert J. "Jack" Stanley, a consultant and former chairman of its Kellogg Brown & Root unit, saying Mr. Stanley's actions had violated "codes of business conduct."

The Houston-based defense and oil contractor said it had terminated the relationship because of "receipt... of improper personal benefits." The company said the concerns developed after a previously disclosed internal investigation into work on a Nigerian natural gas facility.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late last week opened a formal investigation into more than $100 million in payments made by a KBR subsidiary, TSKJ, in the Nigerian project, $5 million of which are believed to have ended up in an account controlled by Mr. Stanley, who recently retired.

Of great interest in all of these ongoing investigations into Dick "The Dick" Cheney's old company is what happens when the questions get really uncomfortable for those indicted. These rich, powerful and arrogant people never go down without taking someone higher up with them. How wide will the investigations go? Especially since the Nigerian bribery scandal occurred while Cheney was still in the head office...