Frank Lautenberg: “One employee discovered that Halliburton was paying $45 for cases of soda in Kuwait when local supermarkets charged…”

“One employee discovered that Halliburton was paying $45 for cases of soda in Kuwait when local supermarkets charged about only $7. And then there are the kickbacks. Halliburton admitted to the Pentagon that two employees took kickbacks, valued at approximately $6 million, in return for awarding a Kuwaiti-based company with lucrative subcontracts. The scandal is playing itself out in the real world, while this Senate sleeps. It is neglect on everybody's part that this was permitted to continue. This kind of corporate behavior resembles that of Enron and other corporations that have sought to defraud the Government with kickbacks and bribes and overcharges. Profiteering during war is an outrageous action, if not a crime. When I served in World War II, if a company profiteered as people were losing their lives, they would be punished. They would have jail sentences in front of them. That is not what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting is that this is abominable behavior and it ought not be permitted.”