The SEC hates America

Not really, of course. They just hate bribery, apparently. From the BBC:

A Halliburton subsidiary is under investigation by the US stock market regulator over allegations it paid bribes for Nigerian gas contracts.

Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) and three other partner firms allegedly paid $180m (£99m) in bribes, the SEC says.

US Vice President Dick Cheney was head of oil services conglomerate Halliburton at the time.

This comes to light only weeks after Halliburton admitted to the SEC it was guilty of bribery in Nigeria in 2002.

Halliburton in 2002 said a foreign unit made $2.4 million in payments to seek favorable tax treatment in Nigeria. The payments, discovered in a company audit of the unit, were made to a Nigerian national posing as a tax consultant who was actually an employee of a local tax authority, Halliburton said in a regulatory filing.

Awesome. Simply awesome. I love that a company can admit a wrong doing, pay a fine, and then get back to other forms of wrongdoing here in America. What a country!