Nigeria: Halliburton plans plea bargain in Cheney corruption case (Sam Olukoya)

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Nigerian officials say Cheney's former company, Halliburton, is preparing to plea bargain.

Caption: Nigeria has filed corruption charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney's lawyer has dismissed the charges as "baseless." (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Dec. 7, 2010 -- LAGOS, Nigeria (Global Post) -- Halliburton is planning to make a plea bargain in former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's corruption case, Nigerian officials told GlobalPost.

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged Cheney as the head of Halliburton when its engineering subsidiary, KBR, allegedly paid bribes totaling $180 million to secure contracts worth $6 billion.

KBR has admitted to bribing officials. Last year the company pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to paying the bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. KBR, which is now independent from Halliburton, agreed to pay $597 million in fines, according to the Associated Press.

Cheney's lawyer dismissed the new Nigerian charges as "entirely baseless."