BHP Billiton still facing Federal Police investigation over corruption allegations

BHP Billiton still facing Federal Police investigation over corruption allegations

Pert: The Australian Federal Police has confirmed it is still investigating BHP Billiton, as more details have emerged of a $30 million fine handed to the mining giant by US authorities.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission last night announced the penalty imposed under America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, over lavish hospitality given to government officials as BHP sponsored the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Now detailed SEC documentation around the case and penalty has emerged, showing the US regulator’s main concerns related to Olympics hospitality taken or offered to officials from the Philippines and the African nations of Burundi, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The AFP is remaining tight lipped about its own operation, saying only that an investigation into related allegations against BHP remains ongoing.
That makes it unclear whether the AFP’s probe relates to BHP’s Olympics hospitality program or other efforts made to ingratiate the company with government officials.
The SEC found BHP invited 176 government officials, including employees of state-owned companies, offering them – and in most cases their spouse – three or four-day hospitality packages worth up to $20,000 each.
The hospitality included luxury accommodation and meals, tickets to Olympic events and sightseeing excursions.
The documentation reveals that BHP also offered to pay for return business-class airfares for 51 of the officials, plus 31 spouses or guests.
In the end 60 officials received Olympic hospitality, plus 24 other guests, including the then Burundi minister of mines, Samuel Ndayiragije, and his wife.
The SEC said BHP documentation indicated the company was not in negotiations with the minister at the time, despite a joint venture in the African nation where BHP’s partner was in danger of losing a nickel exploration permit.
“Under Burundi law, the minister of mines was responsible for reviewing an application to renew or amend a mining permit,” the SEC documentation observed.
In the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics, BHP Billiton was directly negotiating with the minister, but the invitation was never reviewed and the minister and his wife were flown to Beijing on a four-day hospitality package.
But it was not only those officials who ended up in Beijing that raised alarm bells for the SEC.

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