bb energy corruption

By subscribing, you contribute to our financial and editorial independence. The London branch of the Algerian Sonatrach published a statement through the Algerian News Agency, saying that whoever was presented by the media as an employee of Sonatrach is not, in fact, an employee in the company, but an independent marine agent who monitors shipments in Lebanon for the benefit of the companys branch in London. The Algerian company tried to imply that the issue is limited to the technical specifications of the fuel. Few traders had room to receive physical barrels at Cushing. Its Havana address is Centro De Negocios Miramar, 5ta Ave. E/ 76 Y 78, Ofic. 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.. In one email exchange in 2011 involving a British company representing ALIMPORT the Cuban state agency that handles food and agricultural imports, valued at nearly $2 billion in 2014 that wanted to open an account with the BBVA bank, a bank employee in Great Britain asked why documents related to Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd had been notarized in Switzerland. Sabradell was the sole owner of Resimevis Ltd, a Mossack Fonseca client since 1995 dedicated to general commerce of medical products and equipment., Whats more, a 2015 email indicated that the sole purpose of Curtdale Investments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, was to hold the shares of Ardpoint Company Inc., which in turn owned Altabana S.L. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. BB Naft shareholder Wael Bassatne told El Nuevo Herald that his company did not violate the U.S. embargo because it is not registered and does no business in the United States. After Rafik Damak was appointed by Ould Kaddour as the manager of the London branch in October 2017, the latter was able to remove many of the companys traditional clients out of the way. The governments own Climate Change Committee warned in March that there is little, if any, room for increased fossil gas consumption if the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are to be met. The response of Sonatrachs representative in Lebanon, Tarek Fawal, was quick, as he declared the companys willingness to cooperate with the Ministry of Energy to resolve the issues related to what he called the lack of conformity of the last shipment of fuel to the specifications, noting that this shipmentestimated at 38,000 tonswas examined by three different international offices who confirmed that it in fact met the specifications stipulated in the contract. When he was appointed, Hayes said he would advise the company on strategic plans in the context of changes in the worldwide energy market. Beefing up global enforcement around corruption Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lions share of government revenues. The need for transparency in that case is even more pressing given the fact that the director of the Oil Installations, Sarkis Hleiss, is at the center of investigations into the fuel import scandal. After the Reuters story ran, Rosneft strongly denied the report, describing it as a blatant lie and a provocation against Rosneft. On top of Patersons 81,932 salary, he took home 8,333 a month to lobby on behalf ofhealthcare company Randox Laboratories. BB Energy bought oil on the day prices turned negative. One of the more intriguing schemes mentioned in the documents puts Cuba at the heart of a deal to sell Russian oil to Latin America through a company registered in Panama by the Bassatne family. Forgery, using counterfeit documents, bribery, fraud and professional misconduct these are the charges brought against 22 people and entities following a pretrial investigation into a case of tainted fuel delivered to the state-owned lectricit du Liban to supply its plants. Hes right, but the cruelty is the treatment of ordinary people and the contempt politicians have for the rest of us. Four high-level suspects, including Hleiss, and Teddy Rahme and Ibrahim al-Zouk of ZR Energy, did not respond to court summons and arrest warrants were issued for them. He receives a salary of 25,000 a year. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. Hayes declared his role at the oil. He declined to provide further details. In particular, the expensive refurbishment of the Downing Street flat. At this stage, all defendants are innocent until found guilty, the lawyer said. Instructions for the change were sent by Iulia Ispas, legal adviser to BB Energy Trading Ltd. Emails exchanged by Mossack Fonseca lawyers also point to company operations in Syria and Iraq. The Lebanease newspaper, Al-Akhbar, published a tweet by the Former Energy Minister, Nada Boustani, in which she spoke of ministerial reports confirming the poor quality of fuel and demanding to go on with punitive measures against the suppliers. Security agencies have warned against gangs attempting to kidnap unaccompanied children. Patersons lobbying interests extended to sausage company Lynns Country Foods who paid him 12,000 for just 24 hours of work each year. Potential forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging. Such deals, however, may be authorized by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and conditions and privacy policy. The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers decries the environmental evangelism and virtue signalling of the governments plan to phase out new petrol and diesel engines by 2030. There have been unconfirmed reports that Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja divorced Deborah Castro Espin in recent years, but he remains in charge of Grupo de Administracin Empresarial S.A., (GAESA) and the governments signature port of Mariel development project. Instead, investigations have revealed that at least two companies owned by Lebanese businessmen, BB Energy and ZR Energy, were bringing in the fuel. 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. The long list of companies linked to the Cuban government or active in Cuba also includes Sanford Management Financial Ltd.; Commercial Mercadu S.A. (linked to Panamericana); Amadis Compaa Naviera S.A.; Seagull and Seafoods, S.A.; Mavis Group S.A.; Octagon Industria Ltd; Travelnet; and Venus Associates Inc., among others. Campuses would have to give up testing resources and send them to Randox, they continued. A lawyer for Panamericana, Katiuska Peado Moreno, and a former commercial attach at the Cuban embassy in London, Alejandro Gutirrez Madrigal, are listed as the beneficiaries of shares in Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. worth $50,000. The Bassatne family incorporated BB Naft Trading S.A. in Panama, with Jrgen Mossack as a director. 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. Behind the scandalous lies and appalling plunder by the political elite and their business backers lies their drive to profit from pandemic suffering. 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. MPs duly voted for it. The upgrade of the Number 10 flat is now expected to be the subject of another inquiry. Plus, it is still not taking any of the precautions necessary today. Companies registered abroad are legally not Cuban, according to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions. 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 . Hayes declined to comment. The money is in our account and as yet we have not paid anyone, said the spokesman. Starmer last week called on Johnson to answer, apologise and act over sleaze allegations. The Cuban military is estimated to control at least 60 percent of the islands economy. A zero tolerance approach to any deviance from such requirement is adopted throughout the group. The UK energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies amid a gas supply crunch that has sent electricity prices soaring, leaving suppliers vulnerable . For some 15 years, the public were informed that Lebanon was purchasing fuel from the Algerian state company Sonatrach. A former Tory Party chairman told The Sunday Times, Once you pay your 3 million, you get your peerage.. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. Last month, he also joined calls from Tory MPs to allow shale fracking to resume in the UK. Corruption in the Energy Sector Corruption has been defined by Robert Klitgaard3 as "the abuse of office for personal gain". While former energy ministers who signed and renewed the contract have been questioned, they are not currently at the center of criminal investigations. It has since been renewed four times. As the pandemic highlighted, it is a mechanism for the enrichment of the tiny elite of business people who have an inside track to ministers and top civil servants. Tainted fuel scandal: 22 people and entities to stand trial. Those sanctioned include the oil trading firms Swissoil Trading and Malta-based Elemento Ltd., as well as Swissoil owner Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Francisco Javier D'Agostino Casado, and core facilitator and Italian citizen Alessandro Bazzoni. Judge Aoun has charged 12 people in the case, including Electricite du Liban director-general Kamal Hayek for negligence of duty, and Hleiss and director of oil at the energy ministry Aurore Feghali for bribes and negligence of duty. Hayes, who was once described as the champion of the motorist during his time as a transport minister, also recently contributed to a report critical of the government's net-zero policies. Sonatrach has been involved in at least two major corruption cases in the past decade, both of which involved the payment of bribes to company employees and officials. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. Santiago De Cuba. The report claims peerages appeared to be a reward to thank wealthy donors for funding the Tory party. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Several shipments over at least the past three years were found to be non-compliant with quality standards. Some 22 of the biggest donors have gained a seat in the House of Lords in the past 11 years. The Office for Budget Responsibility warned in July that while the costs of reaching net zero are significant, they could be much higher if the government delays acting until 2030. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. BB Energy has trading hubs in the UAE, the U.K., the US, and Singapore. But Cuba kept its links with some of the firms until very recently. This article was originally published in French. John Hayes earns 50,000 per year as a strategic advisor for BB Energy, a major trader in crude oil and other petrochemical products. The case dates back to March 2020, when EDL reported to the judiciary that it had received a shipment of poor-quality fuel, even though the results of tests conducted at the port of exit and upon the fuels arrival at the Beirut port showed the opposite. Yours faithfully, Kalim Rahman. It targets Tarek Fawal, who is in charge of clearing Sonatrach BVIs transactions related to receiving and unloading fuel shipments in Lebanon, and is accused of bribery, forgery and using counterfeit documents, as well as Zaouk. Published by Larkham Printers & Publishers Ltd, Correspondence address: PO Box 74955, London E16 9EJ | company registered in England & Wales, number: 1335756, registered address: 71-75 Shelton Street London WC2H 9JQ. The practice has been banned since 2019, after a scientific report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of earthquakes linked to drilling. The U.S. Treasury Department declined to respond to a request for comment. 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 contract may be summarized as follows: Sonatrach will give its name to the shipments of Baha Bassatne, who buys fuel from the Swiss company Vitol, for 3.5 dollars per metric ton, while he makes 25 dollars as profit in his deals with the end customer in Lebanon. Yahya Mawloud, the operations manager of Middle East Power, the company operating the reciprocating engines installed in Zouk and Jiyyeh where the tainted fuel was destined for, had sounded the alarm about the poor quality of fuel in March 2020. The women pushing boundaries in Pakistans rural milk marketIn rural Pakistan women milk cows, but male relatives take the milk to male-run collection centres. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them. Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb,David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy. One of the markets may have been Ecuador. 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. Although Labour can now pick up on details of outrageous behaviour, it never offered a different strategy to that which put people before profits during the horror of the pandemic. However, the dates for the first court hearings, which will be open to the public, have yet to be announced. According to documents, civil servants were trying to cover for the fact that Randox did not have the equipment it needed. He added that in 1996 there was agreement on a triangular Russia/Cuba/Naft Trading S.A. deal to deliver Russian fuel to other markets for a number of tens of millions of US$.. The inspectorate registered many irregularities and estimated that this branchs deals with the parent company, Sonatrach, and the ministry of defence involved inflated bills. Since 2018, John Hayes, who served as an energy minister in David Camerons government, has worked for BB Energy as a strategic adviser. 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. Swiss lawyer Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin appears as a director of several of the Cuban companies, among them Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. and Pescatlan S.A. In an effort to save him even this punishment, Johnson instructed Tory MP Andrea Leadsom to put forward an amendment and set up a committee to prevent his suspension. BB Energy (the Group) is pleased to announce the launch of its Improved Cookstove (ICS) Project in Rwanda. Which groups shape the stories we see in the press; which voices are silenced, and why? Last month he and other Tory MPs called for fracking to resume. 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 an email, an official wrote that Matt Hancock, health secretary at the time, would send a letter to universities asking for loans of the various things we need. What's more, one of the Algerian state-owned energy firm's subsidiaries has found itself in the crosshairs of a Lebanese court. The Public Prosecution in Mount Lebanon has triggered a heavy-caliber scandal, by arresting two dealers who were supposed to supply the Lebanese Electricity Company with Algerian fuel used in generating electricity. The spoiled fuel scandal is a result of the commercial practices of the Sonatrach executives in collusion with Lebanese merchants, both of which were condoned by the relevant authorities in both Algeria and Lebanon. In recent years, the company has become increasingly active in LPG and LNG. 1) BB Energy Holdings N.V., Curaao Our holding company involved in global Oil & Gas trading activities and owns the below subsidiaries: BB Energy Trading Ltd., London Europe and the Mediterranean region BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC, Dubai Middle East, Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, East and South Africa, Pakistan, Western side of India and the CIS +44 2079380500 Company BB Energy Joey Nanaasare Current Workplace Joey Nanaasare has been working as a Business Development at BB Energy for 4 years. BB Naft does not appear, however, among the subsidiaries listed on BB Energys Web site. Forgery, using counterfeit documents, bribery, fraud and professional misconduct these are the charges brought against 22 people and entities following a pretrial investigation into a case of. The BVI company was dissolved in 2015. Labour supports essentially the same system as now. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. The Cuban government used the Panama law firm involved in the Panama Papers to create a string of companies in offshore financial havens that allowed it to sidestep the U.S. embargo in its commercial operations. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. Russia has loaned Venezuela almost $16 billion since 2006, which is being repaid in oil shipments, and has also taken significant stakes in petroleum projects, meaning it already controls a large slice of the South American countrys production. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. At parliament we will try to make sure that high level responsibility is also explored - including all the ministers who stayed silent over the years., Fuel import scandal shows why transparency matters. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. The internal PDVSA document reviewed by Reuters showed the Venezuelan state oil firm asked Reliance to pay for oil sales under the long-term contract via Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based trading unit of the Russian oil giant. One lawyer for BB Naft, Noureddine Kabalan, asked Mossack Fonseca in April of 2008 to create a power of attorney so that the empowered person can be authorized to sign on behalf of the company in Syria and Iraq for specific transactions.. The methods have frustrated Washington officials, who have in recent days questioned why sanctions have not had a more dramatic impact on Venezuelas finances. 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