The Public Prosecution Office began investigating them to the backdrop of the ongoing debate, in Lebanon, over spoiled fuel bought by the electricity company from the Algerian oil company, Sonatrach, which ranked thirteenth in the ranking of oil companies in the world. Although Labour can now pick up on details of outrageous behaviour, it never offered a different strategy to that which put people before profits during the horror of the pandemic. BBC Arabic's Moe Chreif tells us about the biggest corruption investigation in the history of Lebanons energy sector, which resulted in allegations involving multi-million dollar agreements, bribery, and shipments of substandard oil. As ordinary people lost their jobs and relied on furlough, many MPs increased their income from the start of the pandemic. 2022 LOrient-Le Jour All rights reserved. This entire case rests on false assumptions backed up by entirely fabricated charges. Since the Tories takeover of parliament in 2010, nine of the partys former treasurerswho donated huge amountswere given a position as a Lord. 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. A former Conservative minister who has criticised climate change policies and joined calls to restart fracking has been paid 150,000 by an oil firm, openDemocracy can reveal. Overview of anti-corruption in the renewable energy sector The renewable energy sector is a rapidly growing market that is crucial to increasing access to energy and supporting climate change mitigation. Procs du fuel dfectueux : 22 personnes sur le banc des accuss. 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. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package. Venezuelas oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. In 2015, BB Energy won Ecuadoran contracts for more than three million barrels of naphtha, a petroleum distillate. Steve Goodrich, research manager at Transparency International, said the number of MPs who accepted visits to Azerbaijan - a petrostate with a big corruption and human rights problem - was. Petroecuador contracted BB Energy (Asia) Pte. This story was originally published June 7, 2016, 10:06 AM. The allegations did not prevent the Energy Ministry from awarding it a spot fuel import contract in January to partially fill the gap created by the end of the contract with Sonatrach, after the latter did not renew the deal. In particular, the expensive refurbishment of the Downing Street flat. Paterson had, on 16 occasions, used his House of Commons office for meetings relating to his private business interests. 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. Panamericanas former director, Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez, is listed in the leaked documents as a director of Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd, Euro Foods Ltd, Racuza S.A, Caribbean Sugar Trader, Mercaria Trading S.A. and Sabradell S.A. Fernndez more recently served as Cubas ambassador to Japan and economic attach at the embassy in Paris. : . Under the new approach described to Reuters, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has at least twice asked its clients to make payments to Rosneft for Venezuelan oil, according to the documents. He was one of the witnesses in the pretrial investigation. NAFT TRADING S.A. The Cuban military is estimated to control at least 60 percent of the islands economy. 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. Ltd. and Singapore-registered PowerCo International Pte. Successive . 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. Miramar Playa. Corruption policy, and our KYC and recruitment procedures to support our stance that we will not Miqati Says Cyprus Still Waiting for Lebanon's Ratification of Maritime Border Agreement. But campaigners say that questions will always be raised when MPs take second jobs. As the pandemic highlighted, it is a mechanism for the enrichment of the tiny elite of business people who have an inside track to ministers and top civil servants. Mossack Fonseca was listed as the registered agent for most of the companies. Corruption takes many forms, ranging from grand corruption - the capture of high office of government by elites and the uses of these offices for private gain - to "petty" corruption - the use of bribes or other The PDVSA source said the company was proposing the new arrangements known as factoring to allow PDVSA clients to receive oil without making direct payments to the Venezuelan state oil company in the wake of Januarys sanctions. In recent years, the company has become increasingly active in LPG and LNG. Add your voice to our engaged subscriber community and be part of the change. Sonatrach started supplying fuel to Lebanon in 2005. The managing team of Sonatrach, at that time, instructed Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation (London branch) to carry out the deal.The deal that was negotiated then created the branch of Sonatrach in London, a front for a Lebanese trader named Baha Bassatne, whose company (BB Energy) had been receiving a lions share of the profit margin obtained from these triangular business processes. BBE Renewables was established to diversify from Oil & Gas by investing and financing renewable projects. This means you can get up to 7,500 worth of measures installed for a maximum contribution of 2,500. This evolutionary approach not only applies to our services, but also our people. The current legal proceeding is limited to the Baltic, the ship carrying the poor-quality fuel, which was delivered in March 2020 by ZR Energy DMCC. 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. How the 61-year-old embargo is blocking Cubans from finding sponsors in the U.S. The legal proceeding is not expected to be decided before next year. The new certificates, for 800 shares, were to be issued in the names of 10 members of the Bassatne family, including 160 shares for Riad Bassatne. This case points to the rampant corruption in the sector. While former energy ministers who signed and renewed the contract have been questioned, they are not currently at the center of criminal investigations. I think we have more confidence in what didnt happen than what did.. When he was appointed, Hayes said he would advise the company on strategic plans in the context of changes in the worldwide energy market. Our role was to advise the council on how to reduce carbon emissions and make space for nature across the borough. BB Naft does not appear, however, among the subsidiaries listed on BB Energys Web site. The company said it saved Ghana over $2.8million when it sold the crude to the firm at a discount of $2 instead of the normal $5 a barrel. However, the dates for the first court hearings, which will be open to the public, have yet to be announced. Somebody did and bedlam ensued. All of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers, EDF Energy , Innogy's Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power, SSE and Centrica's British Gas, have submitted bids in a tender run by regulator Ofgem to . Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. BB Energy bought oil on the day prices turned negative. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. Yahya Mawloud, the operations manager of Middle East Power, the company operating the reciprocating engines installed in Zouk and Jiyyeh where the tainted fuel was destined for, had sounded the alarm about the poor quality of fuel in March 2020. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. However, he expressed regret that the court system had not dug deeper. The Public Prosecution in Mount Lebanon has triggered a heavy-caliber scandal, by arresting two dealers who were supposed to supply the Lebanese Electricity Company with Algerian fuel used in generating electricity. By Irina Slav - Sep 20, 2021, 9:30 AM CDT. By subscribing, you contribute to our financial and editorial independence. The arrangement would also allow the cash-strapped Venezuelan state company to receive faster payment, sometimes avoiding the usual 30-to-90 day timeframe for completing oil transactions. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to submit the form, - | 01.03.2023. 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 Rosneft, which has heavily invested in Venezuela under President Vladimir Putin, did not respond to a request for a comment before Reuters published its story on Thursday. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a lawyer with knowledge of the proceedings said that there is no [indictment] at this point. It is up to the criminal court to decide on the merits [of the case], and to determine whether ZR Group Holding SAL and Rahmeh are involved in the case. 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. As Johnson announced Covid safety restrictions in March 2020, the government handed Randox a 133 million contract to manufacture Covid tests. The documents found in the Panama Papers are dated as far back as the early 1990s, when the Cuban economy crashed following the end of Moscows massive subsidies to the island. BB Energy ("BBE or the Group") was established by the Bassatne Family who started a commodities business in Lebanon in 1937, trading grain and asphalt. But the stench of corruption was too much. Yacoubian said that high-level responsibility for the secret contract with Sonatrach and years of faulty fuel imports should be explored. Their statement mentioned that it was all about a dispute with their client in Lebanon, the Ministry of Energy and Water, around a defect in a shipment that was directed to a company under its supervision, which is EDL, a Lebanese power company. The statement added that the London branch is trying to sort out the problem with the client through continuous discussion, and that it will soon be solved, as the relationship between Sonatrach and the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water is excellent. We are committed to acting as a model corporate citizen at all times and benefitting the local communities in which we operate. Stormy days are ahead for Algeria's state-owned oil company Sonatrach, currently rocked by two alleged corruption cases. Zaouk is connected to Rahmeh, however, through another company, ZR Energy SAL Offshore, of which Rahmeh is a majority stakeholder and which, along with Zaouk, has a share in ownership of the Lebanese firm Domaz Holding. The publication was sponsored by Global Warming Policy Forum, a think tank founded by climate change denier Nigel Lawson. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. After the return of Ould Kaddour to Sonatrach as its general manager in April 2017, it was not long before he imposed yet another intermediary besides Baha Bassatne. Three of the four experts said the U.S. Treasury had the latitude to act against companies or governments it deemed to be providing material support to a sanctioned entity, like PDVSA. Mango madness in IndiaSouth Asia diaspora reporter Gaggan Sabherwal shares the story of the Indian couple whove employed security guards after discovering they had planted an extremely rare mango tree by mistake at $50 a mango they aren't taking any chances! Behind the scandalous lies and appalling plunder by the political elite and their business backers lies their drive to profit from pandemic suffering. BB Naft was listed in the Cuban registry of foreign companies operating on the island as of April of this year, with Riad Bassatne as director. He boldly claimed a delay would allow fossil fuels to become even cleaner. BB Energy is not known to be involved in fracking but says that it sells oil around the world - and is one of the largest traders in the Mediterranean. And the cosy dinners, the freebie trips and holidays, the football match tickets and the fat extra salaries to deliver for corporations must all go. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. As Lebanon endures worsening blackouts and fuel shortages, BBC Arabic investigates the disastrous state of the country's electricity sector. What's more, one of the Algerian state-owned energy firm's subsidiaries has found itself in the crosshairs of a Lebanese court. BB Energy (the Group) is pleased to announce the launch of its Improved Cookstove (ICS) Project in Rwanda. This is ostensibly because it was hard for the judiciary to find evidence linking ZR Energy DDMC and ZR Group Holding SAL, despite the testimonies collected by Mansour. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - (This April 18 story corrects to make clear Reuters could not determine payments were made under the proposed arrangement, removes reference to Evrofinance Mosnarbank and clarifies that experts see no violation of sanctions). Labiofam S.A. bought all the shares of BioAsia Ltd. in 2009. I understand Mr. Dupont-Willemin is a Swiss lawyer and I believe it is for the documents to be more transparent and trustworthy. Plus, it is still not taking any of the precautions necessary today. Starting in the early 1990s, Cubas Ministry of Foreign Trade, through the Compaa Panamericana S.A, used Mossack Fonseca to create a string of disguised companies in Panama, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands that bought and sold medicines, cigars and food. I feel they are trying to bury this issue in the courts by stopping at mid-level employees, Yacoubian said. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy. The case has revealed the need to make all state contracts in the energy sector publicly available, including a 20-year contract signed in 2018 with Russian company Rosneft to rehabilitate and manage the Tripoli Oil Installations. He has also compared climate activists to radical Islam. Above all, the government remains ahead in the opinion polls even though it presides over one of the worst death rates in the world. Glencore has installed independent legal monitors to oversee its internal conduct as part of an agreement with the US government, marking a key milestone in the Swiss-based commodities house's . BB Energy has trading hubs in the UAE, the U.K., the US, and Singapore. All individuals involved in this initiative - including co-founders, advisory board members, and experts - are serving in their personal capacity. Stakeholders in renewable energy value chains include not only manufacturers, suppliers and users but also government agencies, financial institutions and private technology companies, as well as informal local networks. Furthermore, in this context, the Lebanese judiciarys decision to seize this file can be explained long after companies have been getting commissions on the import of fuel. He declined to provide further details. BB Energy is not known to be involved in fracking but says that it sells oil around the world and is one of the largest traders in the Mediterranean. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/OLJ). Sir John's earnings put him among the most well paid MPs. The Sunday Times newspaper has revealed a phone call on 9 April last year between Paterson and the Tory peer Lord Bethell, who was the minister responsible for handing out contracts. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. After the Reuters story ran, Rosneft strongly denied the report, describing it as a blatant lie and a provocation against Rosneft. BB Energy is one of the world's leading independent energy trading companies. +44 2079380500 Company BB Energy Joey Nanaasare Current Workplace Joey Nanaasare has been working as a Business Development at BB Energy for 4 years. For its part, ZR Energy DMCC denied any involvement in illegal practices. Their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million. Wars, natural disasters and economic downturns have historically exposed children to the danger of trafficking and illegal adoption. MPs are elected to provide a voice for their constituents in Westminster, but when they also have lucrative side-jobs for private companies it raises questions over whose interests they are really serving, said Alex Runswick, senior advocacy manager at Transparency International UK. 2. Both Mr. Rahmeh and ZR Group have been subjected to a politically motivated witch-hunt underpinned by a campaign to distract from Lebanons political failings. The documents reveal previously unknown details about the Cuban governments economic maneuvers abroad and the foreign companies that do business with Havana as some of the firms tried to hide Cubas hand in business deals to skirt the U.S. embargo. Hayes declared his role at the oil. John Hayes works for BB Energy as a strategic adviser, Politicians accused of being worryingly cosy with oil and gas firms as its revealed almost one in ten Tory peers has financial stake in the sector. 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. BBE has consolidated experience in trading, operations, chartering, logistics, storage, refining, and financing, trading in excess of 40 million metric tonnes (MT) of crude oil, petroleum product, and gas in 2021. If youre rich and want a place of power in politics, donate 3 million to the Conservative Party and youre likely to gain a peerage. The Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban company and do not identify the true owners of the company. Laurence Robertson . 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