Chakib Khelil got in touch with Mourad Medelci to halt corruption-related investigations

Well-informed sources close to the file of the US company “Brown Root and Condor” (BRC), a joint venture with Sonatrach, have revealed that several government officials have sought at the prodding of former energy and mines minister Chakib Khelil who is now wanted by Algerian justice, to halt investigations over corruption practices within the American firm in multi-million dollar contracts concluded with its Algerian partners.

The same sources said Chakib Khelil got in touch personally with Mourad Medelci, who was then finance minister in the Ouyahia government,  to pressurize the customs and tax services to give up an ongoing inquiry into suspected corruption and bribery practices involving the BRC firm and several Algerian big-wigs including Khelil himself and his inner circle.

Several officials are said to have been implicated in devious means including former PM Ouyahia’s personal private secretary as well as certain ministers and several senior Sonatrach executives to block the investigative process conducted by the relevant services fearing to be exposed, according to the same sources.

 Chakib Khelil is said to have prompted then finance minister Mourad Medelci to sack the customs services general manager and replace him with a new subservient executive in order to stymie the inquiry and to destroy all the evidence incriminating him and his henchmen contained in the customs’ exhaustive files related to the bribery-tainted BRC affair, the same sources added.

Retrospectively, SONATRACH which is usually left out of political infighting, has seen multiple, lengthy and publicized investigations since as early as 2006. The BRC affair, where the head of Brown Root and Condor, an Algerian-American joint venture (and Halliburton subsidiary), was forced out and jailed for two years on corruption charges was a major event in 2007.

Intelligence sources reportedly told the Algerian authorities that a communications system sold to the Algerian government by BRC was connected to American and Israeli surveillance networks, prompting President Bouteflika to order an investigation into the firm; whether the intelligence hint was true or not is irrelevant.

The investigation revealed that 27 of BRC’s contracts with the Algerian government came with inflated price tags, often as high as 300% without tendering. BRC CEO, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddor, was briefly jailed and the company dissolved. He’s now free and living in Dubai with a colossal wealth. The close personal relationship between Chakib Khelil and then-US Vice President Dick Cheney came to light and SONATRACH’s reputation seriously dented.

 In 2008, a similar affair where SONATRACH was revealed to be purchasing spare parts from a British company at a severe mark-up. Recently allegations of corruption and embezzlement at SONATRACH have put Khelil in the media spotlight. Notably, reports that several SONATRACH partnerships in North America and managers’ families have been involved in widespread corruption have been leaked to the press.

These leaks have likely been made strategically, to highlight the former Energy Minister’s long-time murky connections to the US energy sector. In each case, Chakib  Khelil denied any knowledge of the incidents denying responsibility for SONATRACH’s dubious management. Increasingly, corruption investigations have implicated men in his close entourage, including Mohamed Meziane, former SONATRACH’s CEO — even Khelil’s son, his wife and nephew as well as several other high-up executives.