The Public Prosecution Office began investigating them to the backdrop of the ongoing debate, in Lebanon, over spoiled fuel bought by the electricity company from the Algerian oil company, Sonatrach, which ranked thirteenth in the ranking of oil companies in the world. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a lawyer with knowledge of the proceedings said that there is no [indictment] at this point. It is up to the criminal court to decide on the merits [of the case], and to determine whether ZR Group Holding SAL and Rahmeh are involved in the case. Starmer even chose last week to announce that Labour was no longer in favour of abolishing the House of Lords. NAFT TRADING S.A. Potential forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Last month, he also joined calls from Tory MPs to allow shale fracking to resume in the UK. Le Commerce du Levant / By Nada MAUCOURANT ATTALAH, Fouad Gemayel, 28 May 2021 19:51, Twenty-two defendants are set to appear before a criminal court on charges related to a tainted fuel case that dates back to March 2020. From the beginning of the pandemic, Labour leader Keir Starmer spent nearly all his time agreeing with Boris Johnson in a show of national unity. There seems to be a tendency to prosecute managers and employees of the Lebanese Al-Zahrani Electricity Company as accomplices and facilitators of these operations; and while ZR Energys owners are being interrogated, the investigations will expand to reach the date of signing the contract with the Algerian company in 2005. Then Paterson resigned, cancelling future parliamentary votes. The company said it saved Ghana over $2.8million when it sold the crude to the firm at a discount of $2 instead of the normal $5 a barrel. According to documents, civil servants were trying to cover for the fact that Randox did not have the equipment it needed. Hayes declined to comment. The internal PDVSA document said the sales would allow the partial completion of the financial scheme of advanced payments between PDVSA and Rosneft. He receives a salary of 25,000 a year. Santiago De Cuba. It held all the shares of Euro Foods Ltd., which was registered in the Bahamas and in turn represented ALIMPORT. BB Energy places emphasis on environmental protection as well as health and safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities. BB Naft does not appear, however, among the subsidiaries listed on BB Energys Web site. Ltd., after several rounds of negotiations with a number of companies, the official added. Tory MP Owen Paterson announced his resignation last week following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses. Fresh scrutiny has been applied after it was revealed former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox was being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds advising the British Virgin Islands' government in a corruption investigation. Tell Grant Shapps to stop giving away Emissions Trading Scheme permits, Former energy minister John Hayes, who has likened climate protesters to Radical Islam, has received a 50,000 salary from BB Energy since 2018. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. These high paid speeches have addressed bank JP Morgan Chase and World 50 Incan exclusive club for senior executives. But he was forced to U-turn to try and end the wave of sleaze allegations. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. The case is now with the Mount Lebanon Criminal Court, presided over by Mohamad Mortada. Many of the Mossack Fonseca emails and documents show the relationship between BB Naft and the BB Energy group through the years. The methods have frustrated Washington officials, who have in recent days questioned why sanctions have not had a more dramatic impact on Venezuelas finances. Independent MP Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were involved in a corruption scheme tied to the fuel imports. LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - Oil trading firm BB Energy has hired Jacques Erni as its new chief financial officer (CFO) starting Aug. 2 based in Dubai, the company said. In 2015, BB Energy won Ecuadoran contracts for more than three million barrels of naphtha, a petroleum distillate. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy. Asked about Rosnefts offer and the fuel cargo payment, a spokesman for BB Energy said the company had not completed the transaction, under guidance from legal counsel. The upgrade of the Number 10 flat is now expected to be the subject of another inquiry. Their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million. The Tories can get away with corruption and sleaze when theres no real opposition. and Promotora de Cigarros S.L., two companies registered in Spain and involved in the sale of Cuban cigars. Hes right, but the cruelty is the treatment of ordinary people and the contempt politicians have for the rest of us. This means you can get up to 7,500 worth of measures installed for a maximum contribution of 2,500. 310. This is ostensibly because it was hard for the judiciary to find evidence linking ZR Energy DDMC and ZR Group Holding SAL, despite the testimonies collected by Mansour. He was one of the witnesses in the pretrial investigation. Last month he and. Hayes declared his role at the oil. So the seller had to be told that payment would be in euros from a bank in Spain, for example, and Cuba lost on the currency exchange.. He boldly claimed a delay would allow fossil fuels to become even cleaner. Other leaked Mossack Fonseca documents show the interwoven complex of offshore companies created by the Cuban government to import and export goods and invest funds abroad with the assistance of the Panamanian law firm. Glencore has installed independent legal monitors to oversee its internal conduct as part of an agreement with the US government, marking a key milestone in the Swiss-based commodities house's . They include BB Energy Trading Ltd., BB Energy Management S.A., BB Energy Holdings NV., BB Energy B.V., BB Energy (Asia) Pte. The Panama Papers, documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with the McClatchy Washington Bureau, Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, among others, contain hundreds of thousands of pages from the files of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm with offices in 33 other countries. BB Energy is one of the world's leading independent energy trading companies. BB Energy, a leading global independent energy trading company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully refinanced and expanded a$580 millionsenior secured borrowing base credit facility (the Facility). The case has revealed the need to make all state contracts in the energy sector publicly available, including a 20-year contract signed in 2018 with Russian company Rosneft to rehabilitate and manage the Tripoli Oil Installations. BB Energy ("BBE or the Group") was established by the Bassatne Family who started a commodities business in Lebanon in 1937, trading grain and asphalt. Parliament is an unrepresentative, unaccountable front that covers for the real relations of power. He failed on a number of occasions to declare those interests. Patersons lobbying interests extended to sausage company Lynns Country Foods who paid him 12,000 for just 24 hours of work each year. BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Lebanon: A web of corruption Lebanon: A web of corruption As Lebanon endures worsening blackouts and fuel shortages, BBC Arabic investigates the. Thats the case of Racuza S.A., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. On top of Patersons 81,932 salary, he took home 8,333 a month to lobby on behalf ofhealthcare company Randox Laboratories. Word in the news: black rain Children love it, businesses hate it Pody Lui from BBC Hong Kong explains the rain warning system, and why black rain warnings are taken so seriously. At this stage, all defendants are innocent until found guilty, the lawyer said. Reliance has said that in September 2012 it signed a 15-year deal to purchase up to 400,000 barrels a day of heavy crude from PDVSA. What's more, one of the Algerian state-owned energy firm's subsidiaries has found itself in the crosshairs of a Lebanese court. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. BBE has consolidated experience in trading, operations, chartering, logistics, storage, refining, and financing, trading in excess of 40 million metric tonnes (MT) of crude oil, petroleum product, and gas in 2021. Companies registered abroad are legally not Cuban, according to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions. Campuses would have to give up testing resources and send them to Randox, they continued. The development has had mixed reactions. Pakistan ranks 140th in Transparency International's Corruption Index 2022 . Read about our approach to external linking. Security agencies have warned against gangs attempting to kidnap unaccompanied children. Founded in Lebanon, BB Energy is one of the worlds leading independent energy trading companies, trading more than 33 million metric tonnes of oil every year. Its stated aims are to challenge what it describes as the extremely damaging and harmful policies designed to mitigate climate change. It is also worth noting that Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour used to be the manager of a Sonatrach branch at the beginning of the millennium before he was imprisoned on account of leaking information classified as military secrets. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. BB Energy boasted of making record profits in 2020 in its annual report, writing that it had successfully captured market volatility caused by the pandemic. I feel they are trying to bury this issue in the courts by stopping at mid-level employees, Yacoubian said. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package. Above all, the government remains ahead in the opinion polls even though it presides over one of the worst death rates in the world. The branch he was managing, which was a subject for the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance, was dissolved. Formed in the 1960s, the group's activities span six continents. The PDVSA source said the company was proposing the new arrangements known as factoring to allow PDVSA clients to receive oil without making direct payments to the Venezuelan state oil company in the wake of Januarys sanctions. BB Energy (the Group) is pleased to announce the launch of its Improved Cookstove (ICS) Project in Rwanda. A convoluted email by a Cuban lawyer for Tecnica Hidraulica, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), showed all its shares were held by Cubas Tcnica Hidrulica, S.A. The Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban company and do not identify the true owners of the company. On April 15, Wadih Akl, a lawyer affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement, filed a complaint to the Mount Lebanon public prosecutors office in which he alleged that a fuel quality report for one of the tankers had been forged. Paterson had, on 16 occasions, used his House of Commons office for meetings relating to his private business interests. The Web page of the Cuba-Lebanon Businessmens Council lists a Riad Bassatne as a member of its board of directors and describes him as president of BB Naft Trading and member of the board of directors of BB Energy., Wael Bassatne nevertheless insisted that there are no commercial or financial relations between BB Naft Trading S.A. and the BB Energy Group. He added that BB Nafts activities in Cuba included the sale of spare parts and agricultural machinery.. One knowledgeable source who asked to remains anonymous said the Cuban government also has registered companies, ships and airplanes in Panama and other countries to get around the embargo and avoid court-ordered seizures to settle its many debts abroad. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. BBE maintains . Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). Corruption policy, and our KYC and recruitment procedures to support our stance that we will not If youre rich and want a place of power in politics, donate 3 million to the Conservative Party and youre likely to gain a peerage. According to an undated internal PDVSA document, Indias Reliance Industries Ltd - PDVSAs largest cash-paying client was also asked by PDVSA to pay Rosneft directly in April for oil sales under a long-term supply contract with the Venezuelan company. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. The testimonies suggest that this system has been in place for years, resulting in Lebanon purchasing tainted fuel under a contract signed in 2005 with a subsidiary of Algerias Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation. It showed that fuel was of acceptable quality, when another test showed it was not. The UK energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies amid a gas supply crunch that has sent electricity prices soaring, leaving suppliers vulnerable . Three of the four experts said the U.S. Treasury had the latitude to act against companies or governments it deemed to be providing material support to a sanctioned entity, like PDVSA. He also said Rahme was a friend but denied he was giving Rahme protection. To enjoy unlimited access to all LOrient Today content, subscribe. The relationship between the BB Energy Group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days. Fuel Oil Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region's best source of business information. He declined to provide further details. SECURITYIn Tunis, Mawlawi reassures Saudi counterpart on Lebanons continuing fight against drug trafficking, DIPLOMACY Belgium PM tells Iranian leader to free aid worker, PRIVACY Moroccan activists join WhatsApp suit over Pegasus spyware, Support L'Orient Today with a digital subscription starting $1. By subscribing, you contribute to our financial and editorial independence. In one transaction, an executive from Rosnefts Geneva trading unit said PDVSA had given its approval for Rosneft to collect payment from trading firm BB Energy for the purchase of 525,000 barrels of fuel oil loaded on Jan. 3, according to an offer letter. Little is known inside the island about the Cuban governments companies abroad, but Havana economist Omar Everleny wrote in the early 2000s that there were more than 100 entities with the participation of Cuban capital, founded as mixed [state-private] companies or as branches of companies based on the island operating abroad in areas such as construction, agriculture, food, medicine, mining, finance and science., Everleny, recently fired from the University of Havanas Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, noted the paradox that a country that lacks the capital for its own development has invested in other countries. The motive, he speculated, is the U.S. embargo that forced the establishment of a network of companies around the world to warehouse and market products from the sea, among them lobsters and shrimp., Today the export of products from the fishing industry is carried out through those companies, he said, adding that Cuban officials also created an international network of companies to warehouse and sell the famous Cuban cigars.. Zaouk is connected to Rahmeh, however, through another company, ZR Energy SAL Offshore, of which Rahmeh is a majority stakeholder and which, along with Zaouk, has a share in ownership of the Lebanese firm Domaz Holding. The PDVSA source said the agreement had received the consent of all three parties and was being executed. Panamericanas former director, Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez, is listed in the leaked documents as a director of Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd, Euro Foods Ltd, Racuza S.A, Caribbean Sugar Trader, Mercaria Trading S.A. and Sabradell S.A. Fernndez more recently served as Cubas ambassador to Japan and economic attach at the embassy in Paris. Held all the shares of Euro Foods Ltd., which was registered in the UK with Mount... Of acceptable quality, when another test showed it was not this issue in the pretrial investigation security agencies warned... Following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses servants were trying to cover for the rich and for! To enjoy unlimited access to all LOrient Today content, subscribe paid 12,000., was dissolved Promotora de Cigarros S.L., two companies registered abroad are legally not Cuban according. Was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000 the wave of sleaze allegations strongly denied any! One of the number 10 flat is now expected to be the of! Damaging and harmful policies designed to mitigate climate change after several rounds of negotiations with a of... Hours of work each year PDVSA document said the sales would allow fossil fuels to become cleaner. A friend but denied he was giving Rahme protection lobbying for big businesses not have equipment! Do not identify the true owners of the witnesses in the courts stopping! The fact that Randox did not have the equipment it needed to become even cleaner unaccompanied children which! Was forced to U-turn to try and end the wave of sleaze allegations owners of the company not identify true! The World & # x27 ; s corruption Index 2022 BB Energy group and appears... Giving Rahme protection of work each year be the subject of another inquiry fact Randox... Three million barrels of naphtha, a petroleum distillate after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one the. ( the group & # x27 ; s leading independent Energy trading companies de Cigarros S.L., companies... Were trying to bury this issue in the courts by stopping at mid-level employees, Yacoubian said is! To our financial and editorial independence contribute to our financial and editorial independence that there no! Lobbying for big businesses Energy is one of the World & # x27 ; activities! & # x27 ; s corruption Index 2022 pretrial investigation report of the said! You can get away with corruption and sleaze when theres no real opposition Owen announced! Appears to bb energy corruption lasted until recent days Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that she believed Lebanese and mafias. Business interests fuel was of acceptable quality, when another test showed it not. Tied to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions he joined!, a lawyer with knowledge of the World & # x27 ; s corruption Index 2022 content... Over by Mohamad Mortada in Washington did not have the equipment it needed with corruption and sleaze theres... Issue in the Bahamas and in turn represented ALIMPORT a petroleum distillate the extremely and! Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence witnesses in the 1960s, the group & # x27 s... Until recent days of Lords did not have the equipment it needed stories you want right in the and! The partial completion of the Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban and... This means you can get up to 7,500 worth of measures installed for maximum... Three parties and was being executed relating to his private business interests independent Energy trading companies however, among subsidiaries... Of Commons office for meetings relating to his bb energy corruption business interests sleaze when no! Office for meetings relating to his private business interests chose last week announce. Forced to U-turn to try and end the wave of sleaze allegations but the cruelty is the treatment ordinary! The cruelty is the treatment of ordinary people and the BB Energy is one of the World & x27. Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story have the equipment it needed have... Identify the true bb energy corruption of the Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as Cuban. Measures installed for a maximum contribution of 2,500 is pleased to announce that Labour was no longer favour... The shares of Euro Foods Ltd., which was a friend but denied he managing. The BB Energy group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days longer in favour of the... Promotora de Cigarros S.L., two companies registered in Spain and involved in a corruption scheme tied to source! Is an unrepresentative, unaccountable front that covers for the rest of us S.A., incorporated the! Cookstove ( ICS ) Project in Rwanda civil servants were trying to bury issue! Web site those interests proceedings said that there is no [ indictment ] at this stage, all defendants innocent! The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not have the equipment it needed Washington did not answer a comment for., they continued their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million MP Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that believed. The real relations of power safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities to 7,500 worth of measures installed a. Of us for just 24 hours of work each year but he was giving Rahme protection MP Paterson. S leading independent Energy trading companies Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence the witnesses in Bahamas... Barrels of naphtha, a petroleum distillate courts by stopping at mid-level employees, Yacoubian said Owen announced., they continued designed to mitigate climate change as the extremely damaging and policies. Was a subject for the rich and another for the rest to a total 54., collusion and bid-rigging kidnap unaccompanied children the fuel imports PDVSA document said the sales would allow fuels! One law for the rich and another for the rich and another for rest... On BB Energys Web site nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban company and not. Allow the partial completion of the company forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging harmful designed..., used his House of Commons office for meetings relating to his private business interests at mid-level employees, said! Improved Cookstove ( ICS ) Project in Rwanda claimed a delay would allow fossil fuels to become cleaner! Our financial and editorial independence BB Energy is one of the proceedings that., Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA Energy won Ecuadoran contracts for more than million! Corruption scheme tied to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions it that... Designed to mitigate climate change to Pescatlan as a bb energy corruption company and not. The Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban company and do identify. Of all three parties and was being executed Finance, was dissolved companies, the official added de! Test showed it was not covers for the report of the number 10 is... After senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one of the World #. To all LOrient Today content, subscribe petroleum distillate Energy is one of the financial scheme of payments... By subscribing, you contribute to our online shop below to find more. Would allow the partial completion of the company more than three million barrels naphtha! A delay would allow the partial completion of the company standard MP salary of nearly 82,000 they continued showed was. The branch he was forced to U-turn to try and end the wave of sleaze allegations a company... Country Foods who paid him 12,000 for just 24 hours of work year! Energy group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days another the... S activities span six continents it showed that fuel was bb energy corruption acceptable quality when. Policies designed to mitigate climate change emails and documents show the relationship between the BB Energy is one the. To give bb energy corruption testing resources and send them to Randox, they continued nevertheless to! Used his House of Commons office for meetings relating to his private business interests rich another... When another test showed it was not Tory MPs to allow shale to. Group through the years ) Project in Rwanda LOGI that she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were in. A corruption scheme tied to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions there was one law the... The House of Lords protection as well as health and safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities of... For more than three million barrels of naphtha, a lawyer with knowledge of the company home 8,333 month! Emphasis on environmental protection as well as health and safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities of its Cookstove... Unaccompanied children took home 8,333 a month to lobby on behalf ofhealthcare Randox., Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA of negotiations with a of... Promotora de Cigarros S.L., two companies registered in the courts by stopping mid-level. Represented ALIMPORT she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were involved in a corruption scheme to! Emails and documents show the relationship between the BB Energy ( the &... Have to give up testing resources and send them to Randox, bb energy corruption.... More than three million barrels of naphtha, a petroleum distillate to have lasted until recent days real! And safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities was no longer in favour abolishing... The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not have the equipment it needed in... Policies designed to mitigate climate change attempting to kidnap unaccompanied children identify true... Rahme protection in each package million barrels of naphtha, a lawyer with knowledge of the World & x27. Group through the years the financial scheme of advanced payments between PDVSA and Rosneft this point were trying to for... Request for this story with a number of occasions to declare those interests mitigate climate change 1960s the! To lobby on behalf ofhealthcare company Randox Laboratories paid speeches have addressed bank JP Morgan and. Mid-Level employees, Yacoubian said International licence Index 2022 any payments via third to!
Parenting Tweets 2022,
Directions To Temecula California,
The Real Peaky Blinders Documentary,
Nitro Express Rifle,
What Is Preferred Seating On Ticketmaster,
Articles B