Halliburton spinoff prepares to admit bribery...

HOUSTON — A spinoff of Halliburton Co. is on the verge of pleading guilty to federal bribery charges. Court papers filed in Houston on Friday show Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC is preparing to plead guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004. The government filed a criminal information in federal court, a document which is often used as part of a plea deal. KBR, a major engineering and construction services company with operations around the world, was split off as a separate public company from Halliburton in 2007. KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said the company had no comment Friday and referred to KBR's quarterly SEC filing last October. In that document, KBR said Halliburton "agreed to indemnify us for, among other things, liabilities unrelated to our business, for certain other agreed matters relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations ... and for other litigation matters related to Halliburton's business."....Link