[Published: Sunday December 19 2010]
 Nigeria drops Cheney bribery charges
Abuja, 19 Dec – (ANA) – Nigeria has dropped charges against former US Vice-President Dick Cheney over a 1990s bribery scandal, anti-corruption officials say.
The case focused on bribes paid by engineering firm KBR while it was a subsidiary of Halliburton, a firm headed by Mr Cheney at the time.
Nigerian officials said Halliburton agreed an out-of-court deal worth $ 250m (£ 160m). The firm has not commented.
Mr Cheney, who became vice-president in 2001, has always denied wrongdoing.
Femi Babafemi, of Nigeria's anti-corruption agency EFCC, said Halliburton had agreed to pay $250m "in lieu of prosecution".
He said $130m of the money would be repatriated from foreign bank accounts.
AFP news agency reported that the money in foreign accounts was part of the bribery scheme, but had been frozen before it had reached Nigeria.
Halliburton, which split from KBR in 2007, has not commented on the deal but has insisted it has done nothing wrong. (ANA)
FA/ANA/19 December 2010------
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