Country: Cayman Islands
 United
Kingdom
 Halliburton
KBR
 Dick
Cheney
Cayman Islands location: "Caribbean, three
island (Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman) group in Caribbean Sea,
240 km south of Cuba and 268 km northwest of Jamaica."
Geographic coordinates:
19 30 N, 80 30 W
-Factbook
Cuba
___Jamaica
~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
 Cayman
Islands
Grand Cayman Island, Cayman
Brac Island, Little Cayman Island
CAYMAN ISLANDS News:
20080325
-
 American
-  Workers
-  Health
- Safety
-  Lawsuit
- KBR
Halliburton -  Corporation
-  Government
-  History
-  Texas
-  Oil
- Construction
-  Science
-  Iraq
- Cayman
Islands -  Politics
- "Iraq
contractor fights suit over toxic exposure: Tax loophole
may subject construction firm to damages." ... "When the American team
arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2003 to repair the Qarmat Ali water injection
plant, supervisors told them the orange, sand-like substance strewn around
the looted facility was just a "mild irritant," workers recall." ... "The
workers got it on their hands and clothing every day while racing for 2
1/2 months to meet a deadline to get the plant, a crucial part of Iraq's
oil infrastructure, up and running." ... "But the chemical turned out to
be sodium dichromate, a substance so dangerous that even limited exposure
greatly increases the risk of cancer. Soon, many of the 22 Americans and
100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness
of breath. Within weeks, nearly 60 percent exhibited symptoms of exposure,
according to the minutes of a meeting of project managers from KBR, the
Houston[Texas]-based construction company in charge of the repairs." ...
"Now, nine Americans are accusing KBR, then a subsidiary of the oil conglomerate
Halliburton, of knowingly exposing them to the deadly substance and failing
to provide them with the protective equipment needed to keep them safe."
... "But the workers, like all employees injured in Iraq, face an uphill
struggle in their quest for damages. Under a World War II-era federal workers
compensation law, employers are generally protected from employee lawsuits,
except in rare cases in which it can be proven that the company intentionally
harmed its employees or committed outright fraud." ... "KBR is citing the
law, called the Defense Base Act, as grounds to reject the workers' request
for damages." ... "But the company's own actions have undermined its case:
To avoid payroll taxes for its American employees, KBR hired the workers
through two subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands, part of a strategy
that has allowed KBR to dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in Social
Security and Medicare taxes." ... "That gives the workers' lawyer, Mike
Doyle of Houston, a chance to argue to an arbitration board that KBR is
not an employer protected by federal law, but a third-party that can be
sued." -By Farah Stockman
-Boston/Globe
20080306
-
Dick
Cheney
- Corporate
-
 Military
- Government
- KBR-Halliburton
- Cayman
Islands -  United
Arab Emirates (Dubai) - Secret
- Iraq
- Oil
- Infrastructure
- History
- American
- Workers
- Health
-  Security
- Legislation
-  Massachusetts
- "Top
Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore: Shell companies
in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social Security deductions."
... "Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and
until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp. [Corporation], has avoided
paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security
taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical
tax haven [Cayman Islands]." ... "More than 21,000 people working for KBR
in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of
two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building
on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has
an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands." ... "The Defense Department
has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring
its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and
officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving
Defense dollars." ... "But the use of the loophole results in a significantly
greater loss of revenue to the government as a whole, particularly to the
Social Security and Medicare trust funds." ... ""Failing to contribute
to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding
the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name
of short-term corporate greed," said [Massachusetts Democratic] Senator
John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee
who has introduced legislation to close loopholes for companies registering
overseas." ... "With an estimated $16 billion in contracts, KBR is by far
the largest contractor in Iraq, with eight times the work of its nearest
competitor." ... "The [secret] no-bid contract it received in 2002 to rebuild
Iraq's oil infrastructure and a multibillion-dollar contract to provide
support services to troops have long drawn scrutiny because [Republican]
Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995
until he joined the Republican ticket with [Republican] President Bush
in 2000." ... "The largest of the Cayman Islands shell companies - called
[SEII] Service Employees International Inc. [Incorporated, which is not
associated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)], which
is now listed as having more than 20,000 workers in Iraq, according to
KBR - was created two years before Cheney became Halliburton's chief executive.
But a second Cayman Islands company called Overseas Administrative Services,
which now is listed as the employer of 1,020 mostly managerial workers
in Iraq, was established two months after Cheney's appointment." ... "If
KBR's American workers averaged even as much as $63,000 per year, they
and KBR would have owed more than $100 million per year in Social Security
and Medicare taxes, split evenly between them. Over the course of the five-year
war, their tax bill would have been more than $500 million." ... "The real
managers of Service Employees International work out of KBR's office in
Dubai. KBR and Halliburton, which also moved to Dubai [an emirate of the
United Arab Emirates], severed ties last year." -By
Farah Stockman with contributions by Stephanie Vallejo and Matt Negrin
-Boston/Globe
20060310
-
US
- Iraq
- Government
- Military
- Money
- Politics
- "Contractor
Bilked U.S. on Iraq Work, Federal Jury Rules: Custer
Battles Is Told It Should Pay More Than $10 Million in Damages." ... "In
the first civil fraud verdict arising from the war effort, the eight-member
panel decided, after two days of deliberation, in favor of two former workers
who claimed in a lawsuit that Custer Battles LLC created phony Cayman Island
companies to overcharge the Coalition Provisional Authority that ran Iraq
after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003." ... ""This is a smashing victory
for U.S. taxpayers and these whistle-blowers though the Bush administration
did nothing to help," said Alan M. Grayson, the attorney for the plaintiffs,
Robert Isakson and William Baldwin. Under the federal False Claims Act,
citizens can sue on behalf of the government and the Justice Department
can then decide whether to join the suit, which it did not in the Custer
Battles case." ... "Grayson said yesterday that there are "dozens" of other
fraud cases about contracts in Iraq that remain sealed because the department
has not decided whether to join them or not. He called such delay "a dereliction
of duty."" -By Charles R. Babcock with contributions
by Griff Witte -WashingtonPost
20051017
-
History
- "Wilma
Forms, Tying 1933 Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season Record."
... "The Atlantic Ocean hurricane season tied a 1933 record for the busiest
ever as Tropical Storm Wilma formed today over the Caribbean Sea, causing
crude oil and natural gas prices to rise." ... "Wilma was about 220 miles
(354 kilometers) south-southeast of Grand Cayman at 11 a.m. Miami time,
the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an online advisory. The system
is the 21st named tropical storm of the 2005 hurricane season." -By
Heather Burke and Alex Morales -Bloomberg
20040721
-
-
-
-
-
- "Halliburton
unit's Iran role probed." ... "The investigation
centers on Halliburton Products and Services Ltd., a subsidiary registered
in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Dubai that provides oil field
services in Iran. The unit's operations in Iran included [US Vice President]
Cheney's stint as CEO from 1995 to 2000, when he frequently urged the lifting
of such sanctions." ... "Current law forbids US companies from doing business
with countries considered by the US government to be sponsors of terror.
The list includes Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan. However, numerous
US companies operate indirectly in Iran under strict guidelines requiring
that their subsidiaries have a foreign registry and no US employees, and
act independently of the parent company. At issue is whether Halliburton's
subsidiary met those criteria." --LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
20040721
-
-
-
-
-
-
"US
group admits to criminal probe over Iran." ... "Halliburton,
the oilfield services company formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick
Cheney, has disclosed that a Treasury Department probe into its business
dealings with Iran had been elevated to a criminal investigation. The company
acknowledged that it had been subpoenaed by a grand jury in the southern
district of Texas to present documents related to a Cayman Islands subsidiary
that serves the Iranian National Oil Company." -By
Joshua Chaffin -FT.com
|
|
Cayman Islands Coat of Arms Flag Inset:
Cayman Islands Flag Description:
"blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the
Caymanian coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat
of arms includes a pineapple and turtle above a shield with three stars
(representing the three islands) and a scroll at the bottom bearing the
motto HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS."
-Factbook
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
 |
Cayman Islands News Sources:
Search Cayman Islands News:
News
Search
<Cayman
Islands>
in:
<AllTheWeb-[News]>
<AltaVista-[News]>
<Google-[News]>
<MSN-[News]>
<RocketNews>
Specialty search:
<Google's
U.S. "Uncle Sam," .gov and .mil>
Search:
<Cayman
Islands News>
in:
<Google>
<MSN>
<Yahoo>
|
