KAZAKHSTAN - April 2 - Ex-Mobil Executive Charged Over Kickbacks.

J. Bryan Williams, a former senior Mobil Oil executive, is indicted by US authorities for failing to report millions of dollars in kickbacks he allegedly received in connection with a $1 bn investment the company made in the Tengiz oilfield. Williams, who was sent by Mobil's chairman in 1996 to negotiate its partial purchase of the Tengiz oilfield, failed to pay taxes on $2m in payments he skimmed from the deal, a US grand jury says. The indictment comes as US federal prosecutors add new charges against a US business consultant who advised Pres. Nazarbayev and widen the case to include three other large US oil companies - Amoco, Texaco and Phillips Petroleum - that won concessions in the mid-1990s and Banque Indosuez. Authorities arrested James Giffen on March 30 and accused him of funnelling more than $20m in improper payments to senior Kazakh officials stemming from the Mobil deal. Giffen is a US lawyer who promoted trade in the Soviet Union and became a prime conduit for billions of dollars of oil investment into newly independent republics such as Kazakhstan. He was named as special "counsellor" to Pres. Nazarbayev. The indictment alleged that Giffen made more than $78m in unlawful payments between 1995 and 2000 in deals that included Amoco, Texaco and Phillips. Giffen caused the oil companies to pay more than $70m into escrow accounts at Banque Indosuez. But the US government said the banks then entered into a series of "sham agreements" to move 90% of the funds into accounts Giffen controlled. Much of that was then transferred into accounts benefiting the Kazakh officials. In a separate indictment, the US government said Williams received a $2m kickback from Mr Giffen's company after Mobil completed the Tengiz deal in 1996.