Halliburton has agreed to pay the Pentagon $6.3 million after it admitted that two of its employees illegally received kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor working in Iraq. Halliburton notified the Pentagon about the kickbacks on Jan. 15. On the next day, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton a $1.2 bullion contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil infrastructure. California Rep. Henry Waxman said “It is incomprehensible that the administration could give Halliburton another billion-dollar contract without fully investigating serious criminal wrongdoing.” According to the New York Times, Halliburton now has more than $9 billion in contracts in Iraq. Meanwhile the Pentagon continues to investigate whether Halliburton illegally overcharged the government on the company’s contract to supply gasoline to Iraqi civilians. And last night, CBS’ 60 Minutes revealed that Halliburton may have illegally created subsidiaries that existed in name only in an attempt to skirt U.S. laws that bar companies from dealing with Iran. On Thursday Vice President Dick Cheney defended the company which he headed before he took office. He said “Halliburton gets unfairly maligned simply because of their past association with me.” He said the allegations of impropriety come from desperate political opponents who “can’t find any legitimate policy differences to debate.”