U.S. Grand Jury Subpoenas Halliburton Over Iran Work

A U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to Halliburton Co. seeking information about its Cayman Islands unit’s work in Iran, where it is illegal for U.S. companies to operate, Halliburton said Monday.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Houston declined to comment.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly called Kellogg, Brown & Root, is also the subject of inquiries by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible overcharges for fuel and food service contracts in Iraq, where it is the largest contractor, with assignments that could eventually be worth $18 billion.

In an SEC filing Monday, Halliburton disclosed that the Justice Department had subpoenaed a former KBR employee in the Iraq investigation.

Halliburton, headed by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000, said it would comply with the Iran-related subpoena, and reiterated that it believed its links to Iran through the Cayman Islands unit were in compliance with applicable laws.

In a report issued in October 2003 in response to shareholder complaints about its Iranian links, Halliburton said that it was not illegal for U.S. companies’ independent foreign subsidiaries to conduct business in Iran, and that it had taken steps to isolate its U.S. operations and managers from its work there.

The Cayman Islands subsidiary, Halliburton Products & Services, is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.