DaimlerChrysler says it is cooperating with US SEC on UN 'Oil for Food' probeThe original article appears here.
AFX News Limited
August 09, 2005
STUTTGART - DaimlerChrysler AG is cooperating with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in its investigation into the company's participation in the United Nations' sponsored 'Oil for Food' programme, a company spokesman said. The spokesman was commenting on a prerelease article in Stern magazine's weekly Wednesday edition, which said the SEC is investigating whether DaimlerChrysler bribed officials in former Iraqi president Sadam Hussein's government in order to facilitate swift delivery of products exported to that country under the Oil for Food programme. 'We are working together with the SEC. We are providing them our documents. We have a great interest to clarify the whole issue,' the spokesman said. The spokesman declined to comment on the exact details of the case but noted that the company itself had mentioned the SEC investigation in its second quarter report.
It said in the appendix section of the report, released on July 28, that the SEC in July 2005 included DaimlerChrysler to the list of companies it has been investigating since November 2004 for their participation in the Oil for Food programme. 'In that regard we received an order from the SEC to provide a written statement and to produce certain documents regarding transactions in that programme,' the company said in the report. The report's appendix section said that in November 2004, the SEC issued a formal order of investigation concerning 13 named participants in the Oil for Food programme. The investigation sought to 'determine whether there had been acts in violation of the provisions in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requiring the maintenance of books, records and accounts, the maintenance of internal accounting controls and prohibiting specified payments to foreign officials for improper purposes'.
Labels: bribery, DaimlerChrysler