Pot Calling the Kettle Black

As I opened my email this morning, the news items opened up and I had to take a second look at the title of this article . . . Nigeria Charges Dick Cheney in Corruption Case Stemming From Halliburton Bid.  My first thought was this is like the pot calling the kettle black!

In the article it states

An anti-corruption unit in Nigeria has charged former Vice President Dick Cheney in an alleged bribery scheme dating back to his days as CEO of Halliburton, the huge oil services company.

Halliburton and other firms are accused of paying as much as $180 million in bribes to win a contract to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas plant in the African country's southern delta, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Okay . . . $6 billion is a LOT of money, but depending on which agency or report you look at, that is just a drop in the bucket to the amount lost by people to the scams and fraud coming out of Nigeria.  There are some reports that would show that $6 billion is not even one full year's work for Nigerian scammers.  Add to that the fact that many people do not report scams out of shame, and the true dollar amount just keeps getting higher and higher.

Back to the article . . . it goes on to say

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission pointed specifically at a former Halliburton subsidiary, Houston-based KBR, which pleaded guilty last year in U.S. federal court to authorizing and paying bribes in Nigeria for plant contracts between 1995 and 2004.

If you go to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's website you will see on the About EFCC page this information . . .

 The preponderance of economic and financial crimes like Advance Fee Fraud (419), Money Laundering, etc has had severe negative consequences on Nigeria, including decreased Foreign Direct Investments in the country and tainting of Nigeria's national image. The menace of these crimes and the recognition of the magnitude and gravity of the situation led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The legal instrument backing the Commission is the attached EFCC (Establishment) Act 2002 and the Commission has high-Ievel support from the Presidency, the Legislature and key security and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

My words to the EFCC . . . how about you go and clean up the crime, corruption and fraud in your own backyard before you start pointing fingers at others.  You have an office in Lagos, Nigeria which is the scam and fraud capital of the world.  How about making a REAL difference by shutting down the scam and fraud rings, and locking up the people running them so that they cannot just go out and open up a new location.