Oil Corruption May Threaten Angola, Nigeria, Global Witness Says
BusinessWeek By Henrique
Almeida Feb 8,
2012 Bloomberg
(Updates with analyst comment in seventh paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria and
Angola, Africa’s biggest oil producers, have granted stakes in oil fields to
companies that may be acting as fronts for government officials, stifling
development in both countries, according to anti-corruption group Global
Witness.
While increased oil output has
generated billions of dollars for Angola
and Nigeria,
the misappropriation of public funds by corrupt officials remains one of the
main causes of poverty in those countries, the London-based organization said
today in an e-mailed report.
“Too often private ‘shell’ companies
with opaque ownership structures are awarded lucrative concessions, with little
information available as to who the beneficial owners
of the company are,” Global Witness said.
Continued at …..
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-09/oil-corruption-menaces-angola-nigeria-global-witness-says.html
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Commerce councilman pleads guilty in corruption case
February 7, 2012 |
LATimes
A council member
in the City of Commerce pleaded guilty Monday to
a felony conspiracy charge stemming from his attempts to influence an
investigation into his campaign’s financial dealings, the U.S. attorney’s
office announced.
Councilman Robert
Fierro reimbursed some contributors to his 2005
campaign with cash in a scheme that hid the true source of the funds, according
to a sworn statement from his treasurer, who has also pleaded guilty to a
conspiracy charge. Later, when he learned of an FBI investigation into the
scheme, he urged a contributor to tell “false stories” before the grand jury,
the statement said.
Fierro, a preschool teacher, faces a
maximum sentence of five years in prison. He said in a brief interview Tuesday
that he would resign from his position in Commerce, an industrial city of about
13,000 residents.
“This mistake was
contrary to all my beliefs and against everything I have strived to stand for,”
he said. “I take full responsibility for my actions.”
Fierro is the second City of Commerce official to be
convicted on corruption charges since 2010. That year, Councilman Hugo Argumedo pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after he
signed a false affidavit in support of an attorney who was suing the city over
legal fees. Argumedo also resigned from office. Continued at …..
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/commerce-councilman-pleads-guilty-in-corruption-case.html
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Jack Abramoff
wont name names
The disgraced ex-lobbyist has been campaigning against corruption and lecturing lawmakers to clean up Washington since he was released from prison
last year.
Politico By
MJ
LEE | 2/7/12 9:04 AM EST Updated: 2/7/12 11:29
AM EST
Jack Abramoff hinted
Monday that he is aware of individuals whose conduct could get them in trouble,
but insisted that his lips would remain sealed because he could never wish for
even his “worst enemy” to be subjected to the painful experiences behind bars
that he has endured.
The disgraced ex-lobbyist has
been campaigning against corruption and lecturing lawmakers to clean up Washington since he was released from prison last
year. In remarks at an event hosted by Public Citizen, Abramoff, who spent more than three years at the Cumberland Federal
Correctional Institution, said he would not be responsible for others being put
away.
While he understands why it
would be in the interest of certain parties to pressure him to “reveal where
all the bodies are buried and who might have done this and that,” he said,
“Having gone through what I went through, watching my family be torn to shreds
and my children suffer immensely, I can’t be the agent of doing that to someone
else. I can’t be the agent of causing someone to go to prison.” Continued at …..
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72543.html
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