MPs should take all necessary steps to avoid the perception or reality they are using their public position for private gain.. But the stench of corruption was too much. Public documents show for example that Vitol and Glencore have used intermediaries to funnel over US$31 million in bribes to corrupt Petrobras employees in the past so that they may win big contracts, along with acquiring other benefits. 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. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. Issues with the quality of the fuel imported to Lebanon were uncovered by Yahya Mawlud, the director of Middle East Power, which runs turbines at the Zouk and Jiyyeh power plants. Riad Bassatne and his son Wael remained owners of the remaining shares. The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has absolved itself of any wrongdoing in the sale of 942,000 barrels of crude to Lebanon-based oil firm, BB Energy. 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. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. Furthermore, in this context, the Lebanese judiciarys decision to seize this file can be explained long after companies have been getting commissions on the import of fuel. Add your voice to our engaged subscriber community and be part of the change. The news website Diario de Cuba has identified the director of foreign investments at the Foreign Trade Ministry, Dborah Rivas Saavedra, as another of the directors of Racuza, Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd and Caribbean Sugar Trader. Since the Tories takeover of parliament in 2010, nine of the partys former treasurerswho donated huge amountswere given a position as a Lord. 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. I think we have more confidence in what didnt happen than what did.. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package. While former energy ministers who signed and renewed the contract have been questioned, they are not currently at the center of criminal investigations. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The relationship between the BB Energy Group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days. All of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers, EDF Energy , Innogy's Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power, SSE and Centrica's British Gas, have submitted bids in a tender run by regulator Ofgem to . Hayes declared his role at the oil. Image: Cables of the electric generators in the Lebanese capital BeirutCredit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images, except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa. All rights reserved. Please detail the London Energy Project's revenue received, costs incurred and breakdown for both (ie where money was received from and how it was spent) for financial years 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and budget for 2019/20. Registered in: Panama Linked countries: Cuba Agent: Mossack Fonseca Search in: The Panama Papers data is current through 2015 read more Incorporated: 21-DEC-1984 Status: Active Connections: Linkurious and Neo4j Officer (3) Intermediary (1) Explore more from Panama Papers Mossack Fonseca The players Reports obtained by LOGI show that tests of one batch of fuel showed it could contain chemical waste. The quality of the fuel was so bad that it caused material damage to turbines at both the Jiyeh and Zouk power plants. 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. With its economy reeling from years of recession and a sharp decline in oil production, Venezuela was already struggling to finance imports and government spending before Washington imposed tough restrictions on PDVSA in January. Randox later received a 347 million contract. Mossack Fonseca was listed as the registered agent for most of the companies. In my eyes, we should not expect any verdict before 2022, the lawyer said. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg. 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. They include Petrobras, Vitol, and Glencore Limited. 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. The procedures may take a long time, particularly because the number of defendants is high. Standards commissioner Kathryn Stone has carried out three investigations into Johnson in the past three years. 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. Boris Johnson initially backed Paterson. 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. 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. 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. Several shipments over at least the past three years were found to be non-compliant with quality standards. He was one of the witnesses in the pretrial investigation. In view of the foregoing debate, were forced to return to the commercial relationship between Sonatrach and the Lebanese Ministry of Energy, and the pressure exercised by former Sonatrach CEO, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, to adopt ZR Energy trading company as a second intermediary besides Baha Bassatne, as a supplier in the Algerian companys name; the thing that occurred a year and a half before opening the file. Starmer last week called on Johnson to answer, apologise and act over sleaze allegations. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. The Energy Ministry responded to criticism by explaining that resorting to large oil refineries made it possible to limit the commissions charged by intermediaries, and therefore limited the risk. The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. Global Policy Forum, a non-government agency that monitors the work of the United Nations, also included BB Energy in a list of beneficiaries of the so-called oil bribes distributed by Saddam Hussein to recruit international support for weakening U.N. and other economic sanctions against Iraq. Potential forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging. BB Energy Location 12-14 Ansdell St, London, Essex, W8 5BN, United Kingdom Description Read More Industry Behind the scandalous lies and appalling plunder by the political elite and their business backers lies their drive to profit from pandemic suffering. This evolutionary approach not only applies to our services, but also our people. All the other commercial activities were not affected by any sanctions because these regulations do not exist as such, he wrote in an email, adding that Mexico, Canada and the European Union have laws prohibiting their citizens and companies from obeying U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Yours faithfully, Kalim Rahman. 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 BVI company was dissolved in 2015. Mango madness in IndiaSouth Asia diaspora reporter Gaggan Sabherwal shares the story of the Indian couple whove employed security guards after discovering they had planted an extremely rare mango tree by mistake at $50 a mango they aren't taking any chances! This is an actual Pandoras box that goes far beyond the chapter currently in the hands of the judiciary, he said. Many of the Mossack Fonseca emails and documents show the relationship between BB Naft and the BB Energy group through the years. 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. Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region's best source of business information. 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. The Liberal Democrats have ennobled five donors and the Labour Party, two. Ukraine's track record of massive corruption in energy is a sadly familiar story. 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.. The Bassatne family incorporated BB Naft Trading S.A. in Panama, with Jrgen Mossack as a director. This raised many questions about the timing, and the reasons for neglecting it all these past years. Corruption and sleaze hard-wired into Johnson and Tories, The Sun rises on Starmers appeal to media and bosses, Covid report finds deadly failings but lets Tories off the hook, 43,000 people given the wrong Covid test results, Rich get the government to do what it is paid for, New secret club of millionaire Conservative donors revealed, Scottish teachers strikes successand English regional strikes hit hard, Strikes hit Sri Lanka against new austerity drive, Teachers across the north of England walk out over pay, Secret cop unit should have disbanded, inquiry finds. The contents of the contract were never known to the Lebanese people, despite costing the treasury billions of dollars. Last month he and other Tory MPs called for fracking to resume. 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. Every time something was purchased in dollars, it could not be done because the Cuban checks in dollars were automatically canceled because the dollars belong to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the source said. Peter Quinter, an expert on U.S. embargo laws and former head of the International Law section of the Florida Bar Association, said the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba generally bars a company with a U.S. presence from doing business with Cuba directly or indirectly through an offshore branch, for example. BB Energy is part of the Electricity, Oil & Gas industry, and located in United Kingdom. Instead, investigations have revealed that at least two companies owned by Lebanese businessmen, BB Energy and ZR Energy, were bringing in the fuel. NAFT TRADING S.A. The documents found in the Panama Papers are dated as far back as the early 1990s, when the Cuban economy crashed following the end of Moscows massive subsidies to the island. Labour supports essentially the same system as now. 2022 LOrient-Le Jour All rights reserved. Their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million. Regardless of whether payments flowed directly to PDVSA or remained in Russia to pay down debt, the proposed approach appears to present no violation of sanctions by any of the entities because no U.S. citizens, currency, companies or financial institutions seem to be involved, according to four sanctions experts consulted by Reuters. At this stage, all defendants are innocent until found guilty, the lawyer said. BB Energy, which has a strong presence in Arab and African markets (see here ), has been embroiled in a legal spat in recent months with Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi. Hayes declared his role at the oil traders, and there is no evidence that rules have been broken. Hayes recently opposed a plan to bring forward a ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars. Hayes declined to comment. And most trade union leaders went down the same path. Last month the independent Parliamentary Standards Commissioner found Paterson had breached the tame paid advocacy rules. He said, There is a will to hold those involved in the scandal accountable.. BBC Arabic's Moe Chreif tells us about the biggest corruption investigation in the history of Lebanons energy sector, which resulted in allegations involving multi-million dollar agreements, bribery, and shipments of substandard oil. Moreover, he denied any relationship with the ZR Energy trading company. In the last seven years every Tory party treasurer has given at least 3 million and been offered a seat in the House of Lords. Companies registered abroad are legally not Cuban, according to the source, and could be used for dollar-denominated transactions. 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 internal PDVSA document said the sales would allow the partial completion of the financial scheme of advanced payments between PDVSA and Rosneft. 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. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - (This April 18 story corrects to make clear Reuters could not determine payments were made under the proposed arrangement, removes reference to Evrofinance Mosnarbank and clarifies that experts see no violation of sanctions). Edif. With challenges consistently facing the energy industry, we are constantly evolving, using advanced systems, procedures and processes to provide the best answers for our clients. Tory MP Owen Paterson announced his resignation last week following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses. A letter sent to the Panamanian law firm in 1997 requested assistance organizing a fishing operation in the Turks and Caicos Islands with Cuban-flagged fishing boats.. 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. This is why parliament cannot be relied on for fundamental climate action. And the case of Sabradell S.A., headed by Panamericana director Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez for a time and dissolved in 2008. The leaked documents confirm the existence of these types of foreign companies, with at least partial Cuban government capital. There is no overlap of ownership or management between the two companies, a representative of ZR Energy DMCC told Le Commerce du Levant. The Russian oil scheme appears to have been affected by the agreement between Cuba and Venezuela to exchange oil for medical services, and BB Naft expanded its work in Cuba in 2007 to include the sale of spare parts and batteries for autos and trucks, work boots, farm machinery, hardware for USD 5.3 million.. 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 proposed payment mechanism is the latest sign of the growing proximity of Venezuelas cash-strapped government to Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who it describes as a dictator.