Jump to content
w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r

Halliburton to relocate corporate headquarters to Dubai

 Share

15 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

Filed: Timeline

Halliburton ... on Sunday provided further evidence that the focus of US companies was shifting offshore by announcing plans to move its corporate headquarters to Dubai.

[...]

Halliburton will maintain a corporate office in Houston...

[...]

Chuck Prince, chief executive of Citigroup, recently forecast continued "diffusion away from New York" towards business centres such as London and Dubai.

Goldman Sachs, which generates almost half its revenues outside the Americas, has just moved it chief administrative officer to London...

[...]

Dubai has long positioned itself as a regional business hub, with a laisser faire attitude to business regulations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17567332/

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Timeline

Good Riddance to Halliburton . . . been sucking the U.S. dry during the Iraq ware anyway, so it is no great lose!

Of course, I wonder what incentives Dubai gives them to move?? From what I hear it is very expensive to live in Dubai. The adverts I saw on TV while in Egypt make Dubai look very attractive and a great place to vacation . . . of course, these ads were playing on Dubai ONE televesion, hehe!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: Pakistan
Timeline

gupt man, ur STILL here!!

will u still be posting when i have grandchildren?

Timeline

3/09/07 - Mailed out I-751 to TSC - expiration date is 03/13/07 - Cutting it close!

3/12/07 - USPS confirms delivery

3/13/07 - Check clears bank

3/21/07 - Reciept for BioMetrics Fee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i guess, the grass is greener there..or maybe the sand/.//

Peace to All creatures great and small............................................

But when we turn to the Hebrew literature, we do not find such jokes about the donkey. Rather the animal is known for its strength and its loyalty to its master (Genesis 49:14; Numbers 22:30).

Peppi_drinking_beer.jpg

my burro, bosco ..enjoying a beer in almaty

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&id=10835

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i guess, the grass is greener there..or maybe the sand/.//

or the snow

Ski Dubai

snowindubai.jpg

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies."

Senator Barack Obama
Senate Floor Speech on Public Debt
March 16, 2006



barack-cowboy-hat.jpg
90f.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about "pay 2% bribe, avoid all taxes" (speculative, but plausible)

2005/07/10 I-129F filed for Pras

2005/11/07 I-129F approved, forwarded to NVC--to Chennai Consulate 2005/11/14

2005/12/02 Packet-3 received from Chennai

2005/12/21 Visa Interview Date

2006/04/04 Pras' entry into US at DTW

2006/04/15 Church Wedding at Novi (Detroit suburb), MI

2006/05/01 AOS Packet (I-485/I-131/I-765) filed at Chicago

2006/08/23 AP and EAD approved. Two down, 1.5 to go

2006/10/13 Pras' I-485 interview--APPROVED!

2006/10/27 Pras' conditional GC arrives -- .5 to go (2 yrs to Conditions Removal)

2008/07/21 I-751 (conditions removal) filed

2008/08/22 I-751 biometrics completed

2009/06/18 I-751 approved

2009/07/03 10-year GC received; last 0.5 done!

2009/07/23 Pras files N-400

2009/11/16 My 46TH birthday, Pras N-400 approved

2010/03/18 Pras' swear-in

---------------------------------------------------------------------

As long as the LORD's beside me, I don't care if this road ever ends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about "pay 2% bribe, avoid all taxes" (speculative, but plausible)

And if a few workers die on the job.... who will know?

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies."

Senator Barack Obama
Senate Floor Speech on Public Debt
March 16, 2006



barack-cowboy-hat.jpg
90f.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about "pay 2% bribe, avoid all taxes" (speculative, but plausible)

And if a few workers die on the job.... who will know?

True -- especially as the vast majority of workers in Dubai are noncitizen (from South or Southeast Asia) temps.

2005/07/10 I-129F filed for Pras

2005/11/07 I-129F approved, forwarded to NVC--to Chennai Consulate 2005/11/14

2005/12/02 Packet-3 received from Chennai

2005/12/21 Visa Interview Date

2006/04/04 Pras' entry into US at DTW

2006/04/15 Church Wedding at Novi (Detroit suburb), MI

2006/05/01 AOS Packet (I-485/I-131/I-765) filed at Chicago

2006/08/23 AP and EAD approved. Two down, 1.5 to go

2006/10/13 Pras' I-485 interview--APPROVED!

2006/10/27 Pras' conditional GC arrives -- .5 to go (2 yrs to Conditions Removal)

2008/07/21 I-751 (conditions removal) filed

2008/08/22 I-751 biometrics completed

2009/06/18 I-751 approved

2009/07/03 10-year GC received; last 0.5 done!

2009/07/23 Pras files N-400

2009/11/16 My 46TH birthday, Pras N-400 approved

2010/03/18 Pras' swear-in

---------------------------------------------------------------------

As long as the LORD's beside me, I don't care if this road ever ends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: Canada
Timeline

They're leaving for the same reasons as a lot of other companies are leaving the US...

1) No US Taxation on their worldwide business activities and profits.... they will only get taxed on US business activities and profits...

2) No Sarbanes/Oxley... (the reason why many of the large banks are moving more stuff offshore)

3) No excessive and arbitrary US Regulation of Markets and other practices...

4) No US Regulation of their practices outside of the US...

Like it or not.. now that the world is going flat.. more people and capital are going to move to areas of the world that have less taxation and regulation...

There was an article in The Economist magazine stating that the large investment backs were moving a lot of their operations to London and Hong Kong directly because of Sarbanes Oxley and there is a real threat that the world center of business and finance will move to London from New York in the next 10 years or so...

Edited by zyggy

Knowledge itself is power - Sir Francis Bacon

I have gone fishing... you can find me by going here http://**removed due to TOS**

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: Belarus
Timeline
How about "pay 2% bribe, avoid all taxes" (speculative, but plausible)

And if a few workers die on the job.... who will know?

The big question is...who will care?

"Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave."

"...for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process."

US Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-TX)

Testimony to the House Immigration Subcommittee, February 24, 1995

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: Pakistan
Timeline

interesting article - a few years old though.

http://www.forbes.com/global/2004/0419/041_print.html

Trading With The Enemy Matthew Swibel, 04.19.04 If you want to get round export controls, just sell the product to a front company in Dubai. The middlemen will take it from there. On paper the shipment was harmless enough. Sixty-six American-made spark gaps--high-speed electrical switches used in medical devices to break up kidney stones--traveled from the manufacturer in Salem, Massachusetts late last summer to a buyer in Secaucus, New Jersey. From there, according to the export declaration, they were to be shipped to their ultimate destination in Cape Town, South Africa. But these spark gaps can also be used to detonate nuclear bombs--and it turned out that the goods were aimed at an end user in Pakistan, with a stopover in Dubai. The commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates, where trading activity accounts for the biggest single chunk (16.5%) of a $20 billion economy, has become a favorite diversion point on the Persian Gulf for shady cargo. With no export controls and hardly any bureaucracy at ports, airports and free zones, this entrepôt provides stellar cover for smugglers hoping to bypass U.S. embargoes. On Oct. 3 U.S. investigators got a tip from a South African source. The shipment was headed for Islamabad via a DHL freight-forwarding service on Emirates Airlines--Dubai's government carrier. Hours after the Emirates Airbus jet landed at Dubai International Airport on Oct. 20, a U.S. special agent there tracked down the spark gaps to the airline's cargo shed, contacted its director of security and demanded to inspect the box. The response? Not a chance, according to the U.A.E.'s director of customs. The next day the goods, valued at $30,000, arrived in Pakistan aboard another Emirates flight. The alleged shipper, an Israeli national named Asher Karni, was arrested in December at Denver International Airport. He awaits trial in the U.S. for conspiring to export goods without a license, a crime that could result in a ten-year sentence and a $250,000 fine per count. Neither Emirates Airlines nor the U.A.E. has been criticized publicly by U.S. officials. That is particularly odd in light of the recent revelations of the region's pivotal role in the spread of weapons of mass destruction. A Dubai-based computer firm arranged for Malaysian- and European-made gas centrifuge components, used to enrich uranium, to be sent on to Libya. The firm was part of a vast network devised by Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan. Hardly a revelation to the U.S. government. "Dubai, as a major shipping hub with a large free-trade zone, is in close proximity to countries of concern, and that poses some challenges," says Kenneth Juster, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Among the world's top five sea-air hubs, Dubai can accept cargo and send it off in less than four hours. It's only 100 miles to the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. No matter how hard the U.S. tries to keep dual-use commodities like gas monitors, software and nuclear triggers out of transshipment hubs like Dubai, stuff gets through. The lure is quick profits. Traders easily pocket 40% markups just by flipping goods, illicit and otherwise. "Business-people [here] are like cats," says Abbas Bolurfrushan, chairman of the Dubai-based Iranian Business Council. "They find their way out of any dilemma." The open secret is that Dubai buys far more than it keeps. More than a quarter of its $23 billion in annual nonoil imports are reexported, and Iran gets the biggest share. Interviews with private businesspeople and U.S. officials, along with court documents, reveal a simple scheme. Companies located around the world sell goods--from cigarettes to medical devices and PCs--to buyers in the U.A.E. Dubai traders repackage the items and send them along by air or ship to agents in, say, Tehran, Pyongyang, Damascus or Islamabad. Smoking out the offenders is tough. Outside of free zones foreigners are not permitted to own a majority of a business in Dubai, and local partners aren't subject to export-control laws. These realities leave bureaucrats in Washington pessimistic. "Whenever there are third-party transactions, there is only so much you can do to follow the path of the transaction," admits a U.S. Treasury official. Smuggling isn't new to the Persian Gulf. But the system really took off around 1987, when the U.S. imposed its first trade embargo on Iranian goods and services in response to Tehran's sponsoring of terrorism in the Middle East. By the time the 1995 oil sanctions took effect, it was a well-greased mechanism. Virtually all trade and investment with Iran was prohibited in 1997, though the ban on caviar, nuts, dried fruits and carpets was lifted in 2000. The penalties--fines of up to $250,000 for individuals and ten years in the slammer--should have deterred violators. Yet it didn't take long for U.S. products to seep through the cracks. As long as a decade ago, more than a quarter of the roughly $1 billion in American goods exported to Dubai ended up in Iran, estimates the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a nonproliferation advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Last year U.S. companies sold $3.4 billion worth of goods to the U.A.E.; export licenses have jumped 47% over the last five years. "When you blow off the dust, the Dubai region sometimes means Iran and Libya," says Paul DeBenedictis, chairman of the American Business Council of the Gulf Countries. Today American companies are downright brazen about dodging the sanctions. And why not? On the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Asset Control at the U.S. Department of Treasury, only 1% of 3,032 separate entries are Dubai-based individuals and entities designated under the Iraq, Libya and Iran terrorism sanctions programs. On the Commerce Department's current list of 55 foreign end users specifically involved in proliferation activities, there is not one U.A.E. entity; the agency dispatched its first attaché to Dubai only 15 months ago. Since 1999 the government has turned down just 2% of applications to export to the U.A.E.--sometimes snaring unsuspecting entrepreneurs (see box). Officials do point out that 114 end-use checks were conducted in the region between 2000 and 2003, up from 63 checks from 1996 to 1999. Still, "companies are playing fast and loose," says Adam Pener of Conflict Securities Advisory Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy to multinational businesses. Halliburton, for example, manages to do business with Iran obliquely. Its Dubai-based affiliate, Halliburton Products & Services Ltd., allegedly has no Americans on staff; the Houston oil services company claims it has no direct ownership of the operation. Nevertheless, FORBES has obtained documents showing how Kala Ltd., the British arm of the National Iranian Oil Co., solicited at least 17 separate bids from the affiliate during 1997 and 1998 (when Vice President Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive). A few bids include handwritten notes that say "FOB [free on board] Dubai Airport" or "FOB Dubai port"--meaning that the U.A.E. was just a way station between Halliburton and Tehran. Halliburton would not comment on the bids. In any event, earlier this year the Treasury Department reopened a 2001 inquiry into Halliburton's Iran operations and its Dubai-based partner. Halliburton is far from the only brand that shows up in Tehran. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft, among many other U.S. companies, keep Dubai offices and are favorites these days among Iranian traders in Dubai. Reason? Strong demand for "anything high tech for military or oil services," says Bolurfrushan of the Iranian Business Council. "In compliance with U.S. trade laws, it is Microsoft's policy to not sell products to Iran from any of its offices," says a spokeswoman for the software colossus. (Dell says it follows export controls, too.) To curtail the proliferations, the Department of Commerce is strengthening its regulation that punishes U.S. companies that send goods and know--or have reason to know--those goods could contribute to weapons of mass destruction. Dubai, for its part, is happy to wink and look the other way. Last month the emirate's de facto ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, met with Juster about the possibility of putting export controls on the books. The process "would require drafting laws and regulations, establishing a licensing and enforcement process and training personnel," says Juster. It could take five years. Baloney. The U.A.E. has acted swiftly in the past--when it has been in the state's interest to do so. After a Georgian-flagged ship sank off Dubai's coast in 2001, spilling smuggled Iraqi oil and forcing the closure of several water desalination plants, the U.A.E. foreign minister swiftly announced it would punish the shipowners and Dubai companies caught transporting illegal oil. Dubai authorities have squelched counterfeiting, another common practice in free zones, says Timothy Trainer, president of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition in Washington. One of its members, cigarette maker Philip Morris, worked on a three-month-long investigation with the Dubai police and in January 2002 seized 120 million knock-off cigarettes, worth $7.5 million. (None of the smugglers, however, faced jail time. Only one paid a fine, and that was negligible, Trainer says.) Can't the U.S. persuade the United Arab Emirates to police their middlemen? Apparently much of it comes down to docking privileges for U.S. forces and American arms sales ($8.1 billion from 1995 to 2002) to the U.A.E. Forcing the issue "would be incredibly stupid," says a source at the U.S. Embassy in the U.A.E. "This is the one friend we have in the Gulf, except Kuwait." Additional reporting by Robert Reigle

Timeline

3/09/07 - Mailed out I-751 to TSC - expiration date is 03/13/07 - Cutting it close!

3/12/07 - USPS confirms delivery

3/13/07 - Check clears bank

3/21/07 - Reciept for BioMetrics Fee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filed: Country: Pakistan
Timeline

"Halliburton, for example, manages to do business with Iran obliquely. Its Dubai-based affiliate, Halliburton Products & Services Ltd., allegedly has no Americans on staff; the Houston oil services company claims it has no direct ownership of the operation. Nevertheless, FORBES has obtained documents showing how Kala Ltd., the British arm of the National Iranian Oil Co., solicited at least 17 separate bids from the affiliate during 1997 and 1998 (when Vice President Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive). A few bids include handwritten notes that say "FOB [free on board] Dubai Airport" or "FOB Dubai port"--meaning that the U.A.E. was just a way station between Halliburton and Tehran. Halliburton would not comment on the bids. In any event, earlier this year the Treasury Department reopened a 2001 inquiry into Halliburton's Iran operations and its Dubai-based partner."

will u still be posting when i have grandchildren?

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, I guess congrats are in order! :)

very perceptive gupt!! thanks thanks!! 6 months old she is now!!

Timeline

3/09/07 - Mailed out I-751 to TSC - expiration date is 03/13/07 - Cutting it close!

3/12/07 - USPS confirms delivery

3/13/07 - Check clears bank

3/21/07 - Reciept for BioMetrics Fee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
- Back to Top -

Important Disclaimer: Please read carefully the Visajourney.com Terms of Service. If you do not agree to the Terms of Service you should not access or view any page (including this page) on VisaJourney.com. Answers and comments provided on Visajourney.com Forums are general information, and are not intended to substitute for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal, investment, accounting, or other professional advice. Visajourney.com does not endorse, and expressly disclaims liability for any product, manufacturer, distributor, service or service provider mentioned or any opinion expressed in answers or comments. VisaJourney.com does not condone immigration fraud in any way, shape or manner. VisaJourney.com recommends that if any member or user knows directly of someone involved in fraudulent or illegal activity, that they report such activity directly to the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423. All reported threads/posts containing reference to immigration fraud or illegal activities will be removed from this board. If you feel that you have found inappropriate content, please let us know by contacting us here with a url link to that content. Thank you.
×
×
  • Create New...