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09/07/2004:

"U.S. Oil Firms Entwined In Equatorial Guinea Deals"

Riggs Probe Led to SEC Inquiry on Corruption, Profiteering

By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer

Soon after arriving in Equatorial Guinea in 1991, the U.S. ambassador discovered an unusual arrangement involving the country's despotic president and the first successful oil company operating in the poor, West African nation.

Walter International Inc. was paying to send the president's son to study at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., company employees told the ambassador, John E. Bennett. The staff of the Houston company told Bennett about the arrangement, grousing that the son was "spending at will," bringing the tab for a year in Southern California to at least $50,000, the former ambassador said.

Full Article : washingtonpost.com