Fuel poverty and energy efficiency are inevitably linked, the less efficient a property is the costlier it is to heat. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. The contract may be summarized as follows: Sonatrach will give its name to the shipments of Baha Bassatne, who buys fuel from the Swiss company Vitol, for 3.5 dollars per metric ton, while he makes 25 dollars as profit in his deals with the end customer in Lebanon. The Tories can get away with corruption and sleaze when theres no real opposition. MPs should take all necessary steps to avoid the perception or reality they are using their public position for private gain.. The Russian oil scheme appears to have been affected by the agreement between Cuba and Venezuela to exchange oil for medical services, and BB Naft expanded its work in Cuba in 2007 to include the sale of spare parts and batteries for autos and trucks, work boots, farm machinery, hardware for USD 5.3 million.. The analysis and opinions they express through LOGI are their own and do not reflect the view of their respective employers. How the 61-year-old embargo is blocking Cubans from finding sponsors in the U.S. It is assumed that companies will have more trust in documents certified in Switzerland than in Cuba.. Parliament is an unrepresentative, unaccountable front that covers for the real relations of power. BB Energy Group has invested in Gasmeth Energy Global, a company focused on the responsibly extraction, processing, and distribution of methane gas from Rwandas Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes. We fully anticipate that the final charge will also be dismissed, he said. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. BB Naft shareholder Wael Bassatne told El Nuevo Herald that his company did not violate the U.S. embargo because it is not registered and does no business in the United States. Then Paterson resigned, cancelling future parliamentary votes. Sabradell was the sole owner of Resimevis Ltd, a Mossack Fonseca client since 1995 dedicated to general commerce of medical products and equipment., Whats more, a 2015 email indicated that the sole purpose of Curtdale Investments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, was to hold the shares of Ardpoint Company Inc., which in turn owned Altabana S.L. Multimillionaire donors seem almost guaranteed a peerage, according to a report by the Open Democracy thinktank and the Times newspaper. 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. Tory whips threatened MPs with the loss of local funding unless they fell into line. Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region's best source of business information. 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. At this stage, all defendants are innocent until found guilty, the lawyer said. BB Energy Trading Ltd. BB House 12-14 Ansdell Street London W8 5BN United Kingdom T: +44 20 7938 0500 F: +44 20 7938 0501 www.bbenergy.com Page 1 of 2 ANTI-SLAVERY STATEMENT . 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. Beefing up global enforcement around corruption The Cuban government also hid its control of offshore companies by creating still other limited liability companies whose sole objective was to appear in registries as owners of the offshore companies and disguise Cubas hand in them. Listed as a director of one of the companies is a brother of Gen. Luis Alberto Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja husband of Cuban ruler Raul Castros daughter and powerful head of the Cuban armed forces business conglomerate, GAESA. We hope to welcome you among our subscribers. 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. Starmer even chose last week to announce that Labour was no longer in favour of abolishing the House of Lords. By Irina Slav - Sep 20, 2021, 9:30 AM CDT. This case points to the rampant corruption in the sector. The aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria is no exception. 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. Le Commerce du Levant / By Nada MAUCOURANT ATTALAH, Fouad Gemayel, 28 May 2021 19:51, Twenty-two defendants are set to appear before a criminal court on charges related to a tainted fuel case that dates back to March 2020. After the report was published, Reliance did not respond to further questions from Reuters about why the PDVSA internal document proposed Reliance pay Rosneft a marketing fee related to the supply of crude under the Indian firms long-term supply contract with PDVSA. According to an undated internal PDVSA document, Indias Reliance Industries Ltd - PDVSAs largest cash-paying client was also asked by PDVSA to pay Rosneft directly in April for oil sales under a long-term supply contract with the Venezuelan company. Venezuelas oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. Such transactions do not lead to any consequent payment to PDVSA and do not violate U.S. sanctions or policies.. However, the criminal court announced his innocence to the Algeria Judicial Council, which was concerned with the ongoing investigations in the second Sonatrach case. Our experienced traders are situated in our offices throughout the globe; industry specialists who count gas, crude oil, light and middle distillates, as well as bitumen, as their specialities. 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 With its economy reeling from years of recession and a sharp decline in oil production, Venezuela was already struggling to finance imports and government spending before Washington imposed tough restrictions on PDVSA in January. Billions of dollars have been siphoned off annually into political largesse and party war chests. As ordinary people lost their jobs and relied on furlough, many MPs increased their income from the start of the pandemic. That the energy industry carries heightened corruption risks is well documented: when the OECD analysed 427 anti-bribery enforcement actions in 2014, they found that almost one in five related to the extractive industries. The women pushing boundaries in Pakistans rural milk marketIn rural Pakistan women milk cows, but male relatives take the milk to male-run collection centres. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy. BB Energy's global network of middle distillates comprises of a wide range of products, most prominently jet, kerosene, diesel and heating oil. But Cuba kept its links with some of the firms until very recently. The Bassatne family incorporated BB Naft Trading S.A. in Panama, with Jrgen Mossack as a director. Which groups shape the stories we see in the press; which voices are silenced, and why? Formed in the 1960s, the group's activities span six continents. Pakistan ranks 140th in Transparency International's Corruption Index 2022 . 310. This means you can get up to 7,500 worth of measures installed for a maximum contribution of 2,500. Riad Bassatne and his son Wael remained owners of the remaining shares. The biggest donor is Aquind, . They have not been called to account for the 37 billion spent on a failing test and trace system. Miramar Playa. Could Oil and Gas Inspire Change in Lebanon. 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. It held all the shares of Euro Foods Ltd., which was registered in the Bahamas and in turn represented ALIMPORT. . Campuses would have to give up testing resources and send them to Randox, they continued. Judge Aoun has charged 12 people in the case, including Electricite du Liban director-general Kamal Hayek for negligence of duty, and Hleiss and director of oil at the energy ministry Aurore Feghali for bribes and negligence of duty. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. Corruption policy, and our KYC and recruitment procedures to support our stance that we will not Johnson even survived revelations that he would rather let the bodies pile high than push forward plans for a third lockdown. All the other commercial activities were not affected by any sanctions because these regulations do not exist as such, he wrote in an email, adding that Mexico, Canada and the European Union have laws prohibiting their citizens and companies from obeying U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Tory MP Owen Paterson announced his resignation last week following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses. The procedures may take a long time, particularly because the number of defendants is high. Russia has loaned Venezuela almost $16 billion since 2006, which is being repaid in oil shipments, and has also taken significant stakes in petroleum projects, meaning it already controls a large slice of the South American countrys production. You can unsubscribe at any time*. 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. Hayes declared his role at the oil traders, and there is no evidence that rules have been broken. the Home Energy and Conservation Act (HECA) report in Appendix 1. Four high-level suspects, including Hleiss, and Teddy Rahme and Ibrahim al-Zouk of ZR Energy, did not respond to court summons and arrest warrants were issued for them. Sonatrach signed the contract while Ali ibn-Buzeid was the manager of the London branch, and Muhammad Shawki Rahhal was the marketing manager, who had been accused in the first Sonatrach lawsuit. Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb,David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy. Stormy days are ahead for Algeria's state-owned oil company Sonatrach, currently rocked by two alleged corruption cases. 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 . His register of interests says he currently earns 50,000 in the role, for about 11 days work a year. Testimonies collected by Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour as part of the preliminary investigation pointed to suspected shady deals to forge lab tests for the fuels quality specifications, and to the involvement of employees at the labs as well as senior officials at the Energy Ministry, including the director-general of oil installations, Sarkis Hleiss. I understand Mr. Dupont-Willemin is a Swiss lawyer and I believe it is for the documents to be more transparent and trustworthy. MPs duly voted for it. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to submit the form, - | 01.03.2023. After the Reuters story ran, Rosneft strongly denied the report, describing it as a blatant lie and a provocation against Rosneft. Its stated aims are to challenge what it describes as the extremely damaging and harmful policies designed to mitigate climate change. Asked about Rosnefts offer and the fuel cargo payment, a spokesman for BB Energy said the company had not completed the transaction, under guidance from legal counsel. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. The decision to award ZR Energy DMCC a new contract, despite its alleged involvement in the tainted fuel case, was explained by the presumption of innocence a principle applicable as long as no [verdict] was issued, an official source said. It is worth noting here that Daraj previously investigated suspicious money transactions through Lebanese banks, for Nassim Ould Kaddour, the son of Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, based on Panama Papers (First National Bank and Socit gnrale de banque au Liban). Panama Papers: Secret buyer seals deal for South Beach condo, U.S. investigated energy weapon, even aliens, but Havana Syndrome origin still unclear, Amid controversy, Biden administration shortens visit by Cuban Border Guard officials, Rubio questions planned visit by Cuban Border Guard delegation to Washington next week, Facebook takes down hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Cuban government targeting critics, A silent crisis: Miami experts discuss recent migration in South Florida at Herald townhall, Did a U.S. rapper make it rain money in Havana? 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. He failed on a number of occasions to declare those interests. Rahmeh, like the other defendants, presented preemptory defenses during the pretrial phase, which the judiciary accepted, except related to the charge of bribery, which it upheld. The relationship between the BB Energy Group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days. This entire case rests on false assumptions backed up by entirely fabricated charges. Digital Subscription $1,909 Premium Subscription $3,179 Best Value Swiss lawyer Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin appears as a director of several of the Cuban companies, among them Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. and Pescatlan S.A. Since the Tories takeover of parliament in 2010, nine of the partys former treasurerswho donated huge amountswere given a position as a Lord. The need for transparency in that case is even more pressing given the fact that the director of the Oil Installations, Sarkis Hleiss, is at the center of investigations into the fuel import scandal. Petroecuador contracted BB Energy (Asia) Pte. I feel they are trying to bury this issue in the courts by stopping at mid-level employees, Yacoubian said. He added that in 1996 there was agreement on a triangular Russia/Cuba/Naft Trading S.A. deal to deliver Russian fuel to other markets for a number of tens of millions of US$.. ZR Energy DMCC was not aware of any deficiency and relied on the representations of independent and internationally recognised third-party testers who certified that it was on specification when ZR Energy DMCC handled the cargo, a representative of ZR Energy DMCC said. (An attorney for Hleiss, who has been accused of fleeing, has publicly denounced certain aspects of the legal procedures.). Companies with Cuban capital or activities on the island. Its ownership was in the form of anonymous bearer shares the owners are whoever has those shares. Hayes declined to comment. The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers decries the environmental evangelism and virtue signalling of the governments plan to phase out new petrol and diesel engines by 2030. The Lincolnshire MP recently criticised the governments plan to bring forward a ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars, saying that a delay would allow fossil fuels to become even cleaner. The UK energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies amid a gas supply crunch that has sent electricity prices soaring, leaving suppliers vulnerable . Thats the case of Racuza S.A., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. 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. 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. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. Boris Johnson initially backed Paterson. He declined to provide further details. In one email exchange in 2011 involving a British company representing ALIMPORT the Cuban state agency that handles food and agricultural imports, valued at nearly $2 billion in 2014 that wanted to open an account with the BBVA bank, a bank employee in Great Britain asked why documents related to Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd had been notarized in Switzerland. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 3.1. The long list of companies linked to the Cuban government or active in Cuba also includes Sanford Management Financial Ltd.; Commercial Mercadu S.A. (linked to Panamericana); Amadis Compaa Naviera S.A.; Seagull and Seafoods, S.A.; Mavis Group S.A.; Octagon Industria Ltd; Travelnet; and Venus Associates Inc., among others. The offer letter, seen by Reuters with its date redacted, said that Rosneft had agreed with PDVSA to pay BB Energys $26 million debt to the Venezuelan state oil company and then to seek payment from BB Energy via a bank transfer or an equivalent oil cargo. 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