theage | A massive leak of confidential documents has for the first time exposed
the true extent of corruption within the oil industry, implicating
dozens of leading companies, bureaucrats and politicians in a
sophisticated global web of bribery and graft.
After a six-month investigation across two continents, Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post
can reveal that billions of dollars of government contracts were
awarded as the direct result of bribes paid on behalf of firms including
British icon Rolls-Royce, US giant Halliburton, Australia’s Leighton
Holdings and Korean heavyweights Samsung and Hyundai.
The investigation centres on a Monaco company called Unaoil, run
by the jet-setting Ahsani clan. Following a coded ad in a French
newspaper, a series of clandestine meetings and midnight phone calls led
to our reporters obtaining hundreds of thousands of the Ahsanis’ leaked
emails and documents.
The trove reveals how they rub shoulders with royalty, party in
style, mock anti-corruption agencies and operate a secret network of
fixers and middlemen throughout the world’s oil producing nations.
Corruption in oil production - one of the world's richest
industries and one that touches us all through our reliance on petrol -
fuels inequality, robs people of their basic needs and causes social
unrest in some of the world's poorest countries. It was among the
factors that prompted the Arab Spring.
Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post today reveal how
Unaoil carved up portions of the Middle East oil industry for the
benefit of western companies between 2002 and 2012.
In part two we will turn to the impoverished former Russian states to reveal the extent of misbehaviour by multinational companies
including Halliburton. We will conclude the three-part investigation by
showing how corrupt practices have extended deep into Asia and Africa.
