Cheney’s lucrative Halliburton ties

October 11, 2005

About two years ago, Dick Cheney told a national television audience, “[S]ince I left Halliburton to become George Bush’s vice president, I’ve severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests,” Cheney said. “I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had now for over three years.” Even at the time, the claim wasn’t true.

A non-partisan congressional report requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) office showed that Cheney still has substantial financial interests in Halliburton, including lucrative deferred compensation and more than 433,000 stock options. But instead of acknowledging the ties divesting himself from his former company, Cheney denied everything.

Lautenberg, to his enormous credit, has stuck with this story, and issued a report today explaining that the value of Cheney’s Halliburton stock options rose in value 3281% in one year.

An analysis released today by the Office of Senator Frank R. Lautenberg reveals that Vice President Cheney’s Halliburton stock options have increased in value 3,281 percent in one year. The stock options, which were worth $241,498 one year ago are now valued at $8,165,489.07. In light of the surging value of Vice President Cheney’s holdings, Senator Lautenberg reiterated his call for the Vice President to forfeit his continuing financial interest in the Halliburton Co (HAL). Vice President Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options and receives almost $200,000 a year in deferred salary from Halliburton.

“As Halliburton’s fortunes rise, so do the Vice President’s, and that is wrong,” said Senator Lautenberg. “Halliburton has already raked in more than $10 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and they were awarded some of the first Katrina contracts. It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. The Vice President should sever his financial ties to Halliburton once and for all.”

Given the circumstances, that seems like a reasonable suggestion.

According to the Vice President’s Federal Financial Disclosure forms, he holds the following Halliburton stock options:

* 100,000 shares at $54.5000 (vested), expire 12-03-07
* 33,333 shares at $28.1250 (vested), expire 12-02-08
* 300,000 shares at $39.5000 (vested), expire 12-02-09

This continues to be a political problem for Cheney that can be easily resolved. Cheney could simply do what he claims to have already done: sever his ties and remove his financial interests from the company. Considering Halliburton’s lucrative government contracts, and the dubious conditions surrounding the deals, this should be a no-brainer for the White House.

The longer they wait, the more Lautenberg is going to make Cheney look bad.

Cheney is a lieing bastard!!! Besides getting rid of his Halliburton stock he should be punished for lieing and feeding Halliburton contracts.

  • To me, the ridiculous 3281% increase is almost secondary to the deceit.

    This is a three part scandal 1) Halliburton keeps getting no-bid contracts 2) Cheney’s portfolio keeps getting bigger 3) Cheney lies about it. He’ll keep lying until he feels enough pressure to divest.

  • Does the White House even have a response to this? I hope McClellan gets some tough questions about it.

  • I can pony up a WH response:

    1. “Financial interest” has a specific definition under executive branch ethics rules and either (a) does not include stock options; (b) includes stock options but precludes their exercise while in office; or (c) includes option but only if they are exercisable within X years of your government employment.

    2. Cheney has pledged not to exercise any of these options while he is vice president.

    3. What are you gonna do about it?

    Just shillin’ for the man.

  • 3. What are you gonna do about it?

    That’s the long and the short of it. Cheney does things because he believes (probably correctly) that he can get away with it. All the more reason to get the word out with posts like this one. Reporters will care enough to ask eventually.

  • I love this piece of news. It’s just one of the many things we have known all along but, thanks to Lautenberg, can nail to the coffin of this administration.

    Maybe if we figured out how much each American family who’s lost someone in the Iraq war would receive if it were divvied up. Maybe if we calculated how much of New Orleans could be rebuilt… how many vets would receive excellent medical care and counselling… how many homeless could be housed…

  • Well, nice work if you can get it! But really 3300%???? !!! That is
    a lot of cash. No wonder Bush and Co. want to “stay the course” in Iraq.
    The “course” is a straight line all the way to the bank.
    I think that Cheney should do the honorable thing and give all his
    ill-gotten gains to the Katrina/Rita relief fund if he wants to stay out of hell that is. If you read the Bible God reserves the strongest judgement for
    those whose cheat the poor and profit off the unfortunate. Where
    are all those preachers now who should be railing against this hideous
    abuse of power? If there was ever a time to talk about values this is it.

  • Yes Brian, reporters will care enough eventually, but will the American public. They’ll say, “What’s wrong with a little Capitalism?? That’s what this country is founded on, right?”

    Problem is, it sure looks like a conflict of interest to me…we’ll continue to pay you, but you can’t collect until you’re out of office, in the meantime, keep those contracts coming!! What kind of a hissy fit would the Repugs be having if Gore had been getting deferred consulting fees while in office from the Sierra Club or some such organization??

    Cheney should have been roasted for this back in 2000. Now he should just be impeached.

  • Let me see if I can parse the statement…

    “[S]ince I left Halliburton to become George Bush’s vice president, I’ve severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests

    Define “severed”
    Define “ties”
    Define “gotten rid of”
    Define “financial interests”
    Defne “my”

    Did I leave anything out???

  • I wander this wonderfully tolerant Blog site on an ongoing basis bitching constantly about the inadequacies of the Democratic Party. Reading this post is an affirmation that there can be intelligent and potentially effective responses to the never-ending stream of B.S. produced by the right.

    I e-mailed Sen. Lautenberg with a note of appreciation for his efforts and I will do the same with notes of encouragement to my two senators to follow suit and create some pressure on Cheney or in other areas. There is so much to work with. The script for calling the crooks on the carpet pretty much writes itself if an honorable and energetic officeholder gets behind it.

    http://lautenberg.senate.gov/webform.html

    Just takes a couple of minutes. Let him know he’s doing the right thing.

  • By federal mandate, most federal officeholders have their
    investments placed in a blind trust, to which they are not privy
    to sales, purchases, etc. they get a statement at the end of the year. Anything he had before he became VP is in that trust, and is administered by a trustee. If a trustee is seeing a stock return of 100+%, do you think he’d dump the stock?

    Back to Halliburton.

    They are one of the only companies in the world that can do what they do.
    Another is Bechtel, but they do mostly logistics and engineering, and Schlumberger, and oil conglomerate, which is a French company. Enough said.

  • anthony v. cuccia’s comment has in it the seed of what could be a useful Democatic tactic.

    Democrats cannot know with certainty if the Bush adminstration policy in Iraq is influenced by Cheney’s finacial ties to Halliburton. Neither can independents and moderate Republicans know with certainty that it is not. This ambiguity is the reason for conflict of interest laws. Democrats must take advantage of the ambibuity.

    The ambiguity can be honestly explioted by asking the question, in an administration which shields its decision-making process from public view can you be certain that our Iraq policy is not guided by the finacial interest of the vice-president? Do you believe that his character is that strong? This is a man who has said that the insurgency is in its last throes. Does this sound like a man whose judgement has not been clouded?

    You get the idea.

  • So sad that this is the only place I’ve seen or heard this. Ever.

    I believe it, but I’m pretty well read and still haven’t seen it anywhere. I really did think Cheney had severed his ties. I mean, it would be so easy for any journalist to nail him for it if he was lying, I figured it had to be true.

    I guess they just don’t make journalists the way they used to.

  • Oh yeah, did anyone ever do any follow up on the Halliburton contracts that were, according to a Pentagon official’s email, “fixed with the vice-president’s office”?

  • oh yeah baby, bring it on…calls for a little reprise of a story that was swept away by the hurricanes:

    “The United States of Halliburton”

    Over the weekend (when the Bush Administration is at its most nefarious because most of America is preoccupied with getting drunk at barbeques or running from hurricanes), the Pentagon demoted the Army contracting official who criticized massive, noncompetitive contracts that Halliburton received for the reconstruction of Iraq.

    The move demonstrates, to paraphrase the Administration’s tired mantra on fighting terror, that “we will move heaven and earth to find a low-level minion to blame for every gargantuan screw-up we commit…”

  • OK, so it’s actually $8 million for a charity of Cheney’s choosing. Not nearly as damning, but still something that, were it my favorite charity, I would be actively interested in. Cheney is playing one of those “celebrity versions” of a game show where his winnings go to charity, but which charity?

  • Cheney is playing one of those “celebrity versions” of a game show where his winnings go to charity, but which charity?

    Also, does Cheney get the tax deduction? In his income bracket, after lots of accountants get through with it, that works out to probably $2million he can write off against other income.

  • Is this not considered CONFLICT OF INTEREST…???

    If a common citizen did this – yes, it would be conflict of interest and they would probably go to jail…no, no, no – not Mr. Cheney he’s right next to Bush and they both think they’re God. But all of us know God is watching and their time will come. Hell, everything is NOW happening on their watch!!

  • If you follow tbrosz’s link, you see how Cheney has severed his ties.
    Comment by Ugh —

    The endless number of ties and beneficiaries to the money made by Halliburton are endless. The University of Wyoming and the Richard B. Cheney Cardiac Institute are 2 of the charities the money from Cheneys stock options will go to. Does he not have a personal interest in these institutions? And I do believe investors in Halliburton, friends of Mr. Cheney, will be making large amounts of money as well. The money trail should be closely investigated.

  • They are one of the only companies in the world that can do what they do.
    Another is Bechtel, but they do mostly logistics and engineering, and Schlumberger, and oil conglomerate, which is a French company. Enough said.

    Comment by brad

    Brad

    It is not that Halliburton exists that has pissed people off is the possibility trhat our country went to war to enrich Halliburtons and other corporations coffers with billions at the expense of peoples lives.

  • The excuse that Cheney is donating the proceeds of the stock option sale is ludicruous. Even if he donates it to HIS favorite charities (including those that are, or soon will be, named afetr him) that is a huge benefit to him. Do any of us get to donate $8 million to our alma mater or get a hospital wing named after us?

    And what about that tax deduction? His attorney once told a reporter Cheney won’t take the deduction… oh yeah? Like to see that in writing!

  • OK, lawyers out there: is there a basis to get Cheney to disgorge his stock options, and who has standing to pursue it?

  • There are no profits from the exercise of options. The exercise of options is an expense. You are suckers.

    Literally, there are paper profits. But if you really believe Cheney intends to donate real money in an amount equivalent to paper profits…

    Also, the exercise of 433,333 options will leave him with 433,333 shares of Halliburton. Surely, owning 433,333 shares of Halliburton would constitute a conflict.

    If he really meant to end up with no profit or interest in Halliburton, he would have done the transaction on day 1, since there would be no reason to delay.

  • I heard during the last election that Cheney and his wife have signed these over to charity upon their death. In other words, they are willed to charitable organizations.

    Might want to check that out. I doubt anyone who blogs here has given millions of dollars to charity.

  • The Factcheck.org piece (Kerry Ad Falsely Accuses Cheney on Halliburton) makes it pretty clear that Cheney’s not benefitting directly from the options, at least not in the way implied by this posting. And for Lautenberg (or the Carpetbagger) to jump on the huge rise in the options’ value as if it is some sort of new development is a little dishonest as well — the options were estimated to be worth something like $8 million at the time of the 2004 campaign.

    I’d be interested in any more details on Cheney’s having said he would not take the tax break of making the donation. For someone like Cheney (estimated net worth, due mainly to Halliburton compensation, of between $30 and $100 million), an $8 million charitable donation would be pretty nice-looking at tax time.

    On the larger issue, though, I’m concerned by items like this. I hate what Bush has been doing to this country as much as anyone, but I believe that the road to correcting the problem has to start with the truth. To engage in political spin that tries to make him (or Cheney) look worse than they actually are is not only dishonest, but I think it’s actually bad strategy. It’s like the apparently-forged Killian memo on Bush’s National Guard duty that got Dan Rather in hot water. There are plenty of _true_ allegations to use against these guys. Using something they can factually debunk just lets them fight the battle of turf of their own choosing.

  • F’ divesting, cheney should be put on trial as a traitor to this country. He’s a sleaze who is more than willing to let people die under a flag he cares nothing for, or at least never found the balls to fight for himself, while making himself more rich.

    Anyone who is pro-Halliburtion HATES America, Americans and everything good we stand for(although sometimes I wonder how much “good” there is left in us).

    Either that or tie him to bill o reilly and rush limbaugh and put them all in a cage with no food but all the saudi oil they can drink and all the money they can eat.

    THAT would be great reality TV!

  • I don’t see where the link to the Lautenberg link tells us anything about Cheney’s financial assets. I’m not a lawyer, but it does appear to show that he is within his rights to hold onto his Halliburton assets despite being Vice President. While this is sad, it appears to have been true for President Clinton and probably his predecessors back to Carter.

    As the FactCheck link says, this isn’t what you’re making it out to be. Since the FactCheck article was filed a year ago, this is clearly old news, as well.

    There’s enough to dislike about Cheney without resorting to old nonsense.

  • John Callender:
    “To engage in political spin that tries to make him (or Cheney) look worse than they actually are is not only dishonest, but I think it’s actually bad strategy”…
    Thank you Mr. Callender! Relatively new to reading the blogs, I’m about to give it up due to continuous spin and bickering between sides. We need all the truth and intellectual enery we can muster to work on the very serious problems that face this country (security, energy, resource consumption, healthcare…) The most grievous sin of current politicians on both sides is not trusting Americans to deal with the nitty-gritty facts, and instead distracting us with hand-waving and finger-pointing. If anyone can point me to sane discussions attempting problem-solving rather than squabbling, I’d be much obliged.

  • This isn’t tired news. Many people are getting rich from Halliburton. It is a terrible conflict of interest. The apathy in this country is running rampant.
    Step 1. Become Vice-President 2. Create War 3. Make billions for former current company and stock profits for friends. 4. Count on most americans not to care.

  • Erica You need to get out of cyberspace and work for the party or candidates of your choice. Get involved.

  • Yeah – where is Pat Robertson’s scathing condemnation of Cheney along the lines of “Yea verily it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom Of Heaven.”?

    Oh yeah, it’s in that parallel universe where Pat has a beard and Jesus never chucked the money-lenders out of the temple and was a big fan of Pharisees, graft & corruption.

    Meanwhile in this reality Pat is busy designing his next sweatshop.

  • You guys kill me. Why would any of this be unimportant? Bush and Cheney are steering America right to Hell. We already knew that this government has been crooked since conception but how obvious is it now? We the people in order to form a more perfect union need to oust any and all of these traitors to the PEOPLE of this country. I think that this government has not had the best interest of the people in mind since the start and has had the exact opposite on their minds and that is the domination of the people. This nation should be of us by us for us but we don’t know anything. They take our money before we see it and spend it on ways to further dominate us and the world. A democracy is founded on choice. What kind of choice are they giving the people over seas who have nothing to do with terrorists? If the practices of our government were fair then we would not have to worry about other nations hating us and wanting us to be destroyed. I’m tired of hearing that the Iraqis hate us because we have a free life! That is BS if I ever heard it. They hate us because our policies are causing them to see the truth about our government. That doesn’t justify the actions of these “terrorists” but it does explain it better than they are jealous of our freedom. If that was the case they would fight their own governments for the same freedoms right?

  • The true terrorists are in the White House and they have had weapons of mass destruction for a long time. Look at what they did to the Native Americans, the Chinese, Japanese, Australian Aboriginal people, the so called Black people, and every other non-white nation in the world. Why would you think they are being straight with us now? It wasn’t that long ago that this land was segregated. Why would I think that the racist people from a few years ago are no longer holding to the racist ways of thinking and operating that they have benefitted from so much in the past couple hundred years?

  • Cheney receives a deferred compensation package from Halliburton that is fixed in amount and not dependant on how well Halliburton does financially. Deferred compensation packages are common among executives, athletes, and entertainers so they can spread their earnings out over many years in the future (when they probably will not be making as much money) to reduce their income tax liability. They are also used as a retirement income mechanism since executives rarely participate in the same company retirement plan as the other employees.

    Right before Cheney took office in 2001, he purchased a special insurance policy at his own expense to guarantee that even if Halliburton went into bankruptcy that his deferred compensation package would still be paid to him. Cheney also had some stock options in Halliburton, all of which he donated to charity before he took office.

    Therefore, Cheney has had no financial interest in Halliburton since January 20, 2001.

  • It would be interesting if someone could provide the names of the charities that Cheney is giving his ill gotten gains. Ideally, this money should go to the families of the servicemen who have lost their lives for the benefit of Haliburton shareholders.

  • Somewhere in the last 200 years the meaning of Democracy
    has changed.
    Are there any honest politicians.

    My next ignorant question will be??????

  • I have a scan of the legal document sending profits from multiple stocks to some charities.

    Stocks the profits will be donated from:

    Halliburton
    EDS
    AT&T Wireless
    AT&T
    Comcast
    Proctor and Gamble
    also from his wife: Lockheed Martin

    Charities given to:

    Universy of Wyoming (40%)

    Medical Faculty Associates, Inc
    (d/b/a George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates)
    (for the Richard B. Cheney Cardiac Institute) (40%)

    Capital Partners for Education (washington DC) (20%)

    Granted being CEO from 95-00 then vice president right after that and the billions of dollars in defence contracts give to halliburton…apparent conflict of interest with no proof.

  • Oh that document is dated january 18 2001 and the offical document is called a gift administration agreement.

  • If he donates his earnings to charity or not is of no interest, since he still holds the stocks and that means that he still has interests in the company. Why else would he keep the stocks? Lets wait and see whether he goes back to HAL after he his period as vice president.

    • Comments are closed.