By Allan Lengel

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, a  Swiss freight company, four oil service companies and a U.S. shipping firm will pay a total of $236.5 million in criminal and civil fines for bribing foreign officials in 10 countries for favorable treatment, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

The companies bribed officials for favorable treatment in customs duties, imports and taxes, authorities said.

Authorities said the break down of the fines were as follows: $156.5 million in criminal fines and about $80 million in civil fines and restitution.

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It’s good to see corruption is not limited to the Democrats or Republicans in this town. Who says bipartisanship is dead in Washington?  Interior Sec. Gale Norton becomes the first Bush cabinet member to come under official criminal investigation.

Gale Norton/gov photo

The criminal investigation centers on the Interior Department’s 2006 decision to award three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary. Over the years it would take to extract the oil, according to calculations from Shell and a Rand Corp. expert, the deal could net the company hundreds of billions of dollars.

The investigation’s main focus is whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said.

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