The Pentagon today announced it had opened a criminal probe of Halliburton:

The investigation was focused on Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq, which has become a lightning rod of Democratic criticism during this presidential election year.

"The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the Inspector General's office is investigating allegations on the part of KBR of fraud, including the potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Baghdad by a KBR subcontractor," said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Vice President Dick Cheney ran the company from 1995 to 2000.

Aside from military auditors' questions, the U.S. Treasury, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are all looking into a range of issues, from whether the company paid kickbacks in Nigeria to whether it broke U.S. laws by dealing with Iran via a foreign subsidiary.

The company has consistently said all its dealings have been in line with U.S. laws and has strongly denied wrongdoing, except in the case of one or two former employees who it said may have paid $6.3 million in kickbacks to a Kuwaiti subcontractor. Two former Halliburton employees told Democratic lawmakers earlier this month the vice president's old company "routinely overcharged" for work it did for the U.S. military.