Halliburton





Halliburton Energy Services is a multinational corporation based in Dallas,
Texas, in the United States. Founded in 1919, the company's primary focus is
in the energy and petroleum industries, although it has many diverse
subsidiaries which operate in other areas.

In the early 1990s Halliburton was found to be in violation of federal trade
barriers in Iraq and Libya, having sold these countries dual-use oil
drilling equipment and, through its former subsidiary, Halliburton Logging
Services, sending six pulse neutron generators to Libya. After having
pleaded guilty, the company was fined $1.2 million, with another $2.61
million in penalties.

In April 2002, a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), was
awarded a $7 million contract to construct steel holding cells at Camp
X-Ray. More recently, the subsidiary was awarded a no-bid contract to
conduct oil well firefighting in Iraq worth an estimated $1 billion. In May
2003, Halliburton's role under contract with regard to Iraqi oilfields was
expanded to include "operation of facilities and distribution of products".

Also in May 2003, Halliburton revealed in a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that its KBR subsidiary had paid a Nigerian official
$2.4 million in bribes in order to receive favorable tax treatment.

The company is currently (2003) being investigated by the Securities and
Exchange Commission due to allegations of profit inflation by accounting for
cost overruns as revenue in shareholder reports. Halliburton counters that
the practice was approved by its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and
conforms to generally accepted practices.

Halliburton's chairman and CEO is David J. Lesar, who took over the
positions from Dick Cheney, now the U.S. Vice President. Cheney became
chairman and CEO of Halliburton in 1995; he retired from the company during
the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign, and was awarded a severance
package worth $20 million.