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SEC reaches settlement with oil company over Indonesian payments

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Associated Press - February 27, 1997

Marcy Gordon, Washington – In its first action in a decade under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday a settlement with a Texas-based oil company for a $300,000 civil penalty.

The SEC alleged the Indonesian subsidiary of Triton Energy Corp. authorized payments that likely were passed on to Indonesian government employees to influence their decisions affecting the company.

Triton, which neither admitted nor denied the allegations, agreed to pay the fine and accepted a court order enjoining it from violating recordkeeping rules in the future.

The case has no connection to the controversy over campaign contributions to President Clinton and the Democrats by officials of Indonesia's Lippo Group and its controlling Riady family, SEC officials said.

The investigation and settlement with Triton represent the watchdog agency's first action under the foreign corruption law since 1986, the officials said, and more such civil cases may be brought in the near future. Several criminal cases have been pursued by the Justice Department during that time.

Paul Gerlach, associate director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said bribery of foreign officials by U.S. companies, which had been on the wane, appears to be becoming more prevalent again. Other foreign corruption cases are being investigated by the agency but it isn't yet known whether they will result in enforcement action, Gerlach said in a telephone interview.

He declined to comment on whether U.S. investigators had received cooperation from the Indonesian government.

As for the Triton case, Gerlach said the SEC was satisfied the settlement ''will serve to prevent future conditions of this nature" affecting the company. He noted that new senior management is in place and has taken steps to prevent future problems.

Sheila Durante, a spokeswoman for Triton at its headquarters in Dallas, said, ''We have a completely new management team in place." She declined further comment.

In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, the SEC alleged that Philip Keever and Richard McAdoo, two former senior officials of Triton's Indonesian subsidiary, authorized in 1989-90 ''numerous improper payments" to Roland Siouffi, the company's business agent who acted as an intermediary between Triton and Indonesian government agencies.

The SEC said Keever and McAdoo authorized the payments ''knowing or recklessly disregarding the high probability that Siouffi either had or would pass such payments along to Indonesian government employees for the purpose of influencing their decisions" affecting Triton's business in the country.

In addition, Keever, McAdoo and other company employees in Indonesia concealed the payments by falsely recording the transactions as routine business expenditures, the SEC alleged.

As part of the settlement, Keever agreed, without admitting or denying the allegations, to pay a $50,000 civil penalty.

The SEC also took administrative proceedings against former Triton Indonesia officials David Gore, Robert Puetz, William McClure and Robert P. Murphy for their conduct related to the allegedly improper payments. Without admitting or denying the agency's findings, the four agreed to refrain from any future violation of recordkeeping rules.

Of those cited, only McAdoo has not settled the allegations against him.

The SEC found that the parent, Triton Energy, an independent oil and gas company that also has operations in China, Thailand, Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala, did not expressly authorize or direct the allegedly improper payments and false records. Triton Energy, with some 250 employees worldwide, had earnings last year of $21.6 million on revenue of $134 million.

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