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 registered a company in Texas, BB Energy USA LLC., in 2014. The MP has also drawn comparisons between climate activism and radical Islam, writing: Radical Islam, Black Lives Matter and the Extinction Rebellion are cultural not economic movements which want to disown our collective past and so transform our very way of life and so dictate the future.. We are committed to acting as a model corporate citizen at all times and benefitting the local communities in which we operate. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. Hayes declared his role at the oil. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. The internal PDVSA document said the sales would allow the partial completion of the financial scheme of advanced payments between PDVSA and Rosneft. A State Department spokeswoman said: We encourage companies, banks, and other institutions to refrain from providing services that support (Maduros) repressive practices.. The testimonies suggest that this system has been in place for years, resulting in Lebanon purchasing tainted fuel under a contract signed in 2005 with a subsidiary of Algerias Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation. To enjoy unlimited access to all LOrient Today content, subscribe. Lebanese judicial sources told Daraj that the investigation will not be limited to the technical specifications of fuel, but will also include the commissions Sonatrach is making. Link to this Report. Yes! MPs duly voted for it. 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. The contents of the contract were never known to the Lebanese people, despite costing the treasury billions of dollars. Potential forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging. The Panama Papers, documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with the McClatchy Washington Bureau, Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, among others, contain hundreds of thousands of pages from the files of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm with offices in 33 other countries. 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. 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. The CEEC was set up after H&F Council declared a climate and ecological emergency in July 2019. The money is in our account and as yet we have not paid anyone, said the spokesman. 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. Johnson even survived revelations that he would rather let the bodies pile high than push forward plans for a third lockdown. Please check individual images for licensing details. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The Panama Papers also show that Labiofam S.A., the marketing branch of Grupo Empresarial Labiofam, a Cuban government company that produces vaccines, medicines and other products for the control of carriers of diseases, owns shares in BioAsia Ltd. That company was founded with an investment of 10 million euros from Vietnam, southern Asia and the United Kingdom and lists Mossack Fonseca as its registered agent. Wars, natural disasters and economic downturns have historically exposed children to the danger of trafficking and illegal adoption. Tens of thousands of teachers take action, Some workers defied a government strike ban, Teachers report more picket lines than last time, This article is over 1 years, 3 months old, Its not just the bodies that Boris Johnson let pile highits the cash too, reports Sam Ord. The methods have frustrated Washington officials, who have in recent days questioned why sanctions have not had a more dramatic impact on Venezuelas finances. MPs should take all necessary steps to avoid the perception or reality they are using their public position for private gain.. 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. BB Energy places emphasis on environmental protection as well as health and safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities. That the energy industry carries heightened corruption risks is well documented: when the OECD analysed 427 anti-bribery enforcement actions in 2014, they found that almost one in five related to the extractive industries. However, the dates for the first court hearings, which will be open to the public, have yet to be announced. 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 similar logo and name are explained through an agreement between the two firms that gave ZR Energy DMCC the right to use the brand and credit facility of ZR Group Holding SAL. Starmer last week called on Johnson to answer, apologise and act over sleaze allegations. Ukraine's track record of massive corruption in energy is a sadly familiar story. The upgrade of the Number 10 flat is now expected to be the subject of another inquiry. The latter said in a televised address that he discouraged Hleiss, one of his childhood friends, from going to the court. The judge is the one who has the power to add to or drop the charges.. The legal proceeding is not expected to be decided before next year. The document also said that the payment by Reliance to Rosneft would also allow PDVSA to meet unspecified contractual obligations to Rosneft. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Panama Papers: Secret buyer seals deal for South Beach condo, U.S. investigated energy weapon, even aliens, but Havana Syndrome origin still unclear, Amid controversy, Biden administration shortens visit by Cuban Border Guard officials, Rubio questions planned visit by Cuban Border Guard delegation to Washington next week, Facebook takes down hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Cuban government targeting critics, A silent crisis: Miami experts discuss recent migration in South Florida at Herald townhall, Did a U.S. rapper make it rain money in Havana? 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. The deal between the Lebanese and Algerian governments was to provide the Lebanese market mainly with heavy fuel oil to meet the needs of power plants, a fuel that Algeria does not produce in sufficient quantities, as the Algerian oil Saharan Blend is known for being a light crude type. Sir John's earnings put him among the most well paid MPs. There seems to be a tendency to prosecute managers and employees of the Lebanese Al-Zahrani Electricity Company as accomplices and facilitators of these operations; and while ZR Energys owners are being interrogated, the investigations will expand to reach the date of signing the contract with the Algerian company in 2005. It said it had purchased Venezuelan oil from Rosneft that was provided by PDVSA to the Russian company in repayment of past loans, so no money was flowing back to Maduros government. The PDVSA source said that Rosneft credited PDVSA the amount, minus an undisclosed fee, and then started talks with BB Energy to recover the sum it advanced PDVSA. This is an actual Pandoras box that goes far beyond the chapter currently in the hands of the judiciary, he said. And most trade union leaders went down the same path. The difference: The name of the BVI firm has no Spanish accents, the Cuban companys name does. The Swiss lawyer did not respond to El Nuevo Herald requests for comments on this story. Tainted fuel scandal: 22 people and entities to stand trial. The Cuban government also hid its control of offshore companies by creating still other limited liability companies whose sole objective was to appear in registries as owners of the offshore companies and disguise Cubas hand in them. 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 government was forced to go back on itself and announced there would be a vote on Patersons suspension. Beefing up global enforcement around corruption Aguilar also has served as a deputy in the legislative National Assembly. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. The Tories can get away with corruption and sleaze when theres no real opposition. Mossack Fonseca was listed as the registered agent for most of the companies. Last month he and. Independent MP Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were involved in a corruption scheme tied to the fuel imports. 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. He failed on a number of occasions to declare those interests. BB Energy has trading hubs in the UAE, the U.K., the US, and Singapore. 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 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. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. 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. 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 What's more, one of the Algerian state-owned energy firm's subsidiaries has found itself in the crosshairs of a Lebanese court. The report claims peerages appeared to be a reward to thank wealthy donors for funding the Tory party. Such deals, however, may be authorized by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security. This means that the judiciary has ruled pro forma for now. An accountant for the British company All Worlds Food Ltd, Jose Da Silva, answered: I do not know the reasons why the documents were certified by a Swiss notary. Hes right, but the cruelty is the treatment of ordinary people and the contempt politicians have for the rest of us. : . The family controls BB Energy, a conglomerate founded in Lebanon in 1937 that buys and sells 16 million metric tons of crude and derivatives each year. 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 Lebanese National News Agency announced that the attorney-general of Mount Lebanon, Ghada Aoun, issued arrest warrants against 17 people working in the fuel sector because of import irregularities. 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. Since sanctions were imposed, Reliance has made such purchases with the full knowledge and approval of the U.S. Department of State (USDOS), Reliance said. Which groups shape the stories we see in the press; which voices are silenced, and why? 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. Somebody did and bedlam ensued. 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. October 19, 2018, 15:03 IST DUBAI: Trading company BB Energy has raised a $245 million revolving credit facility to refinance existing credit and for general corporate purposes, it said on Thursday. Companies with Cuban capital or activities on the island. 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. This is why parliament cannot be relied on for fundamental climate action. Instead, investigations have revealed that at least two companies owned by Lebanese businessmen, BB Energy and ZR Energy, were bringing in the fuel. Places emphasis on environmental protection as well as health and safety, particularly regarding oil-related storage activities the spokesman Patersons. In crude oil and other petrochemical products upgrade of the contract were never known the! 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