apparently, doing business with Monsanto can irreparably damage your reputation

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GMW: Monsanto bribes case - fall out in Indonesia

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 18 May 2005 08:50:30 +0100

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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apparently, doing business with Monsanto can irreparably damage your

reputation!

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Court to hear civil action against 'AWSJ'

The Jakarta Post, May 18 2005

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20050518.C05 & irec=4

 

Jakarta - The Central Jakarta District Court will start hearing on

Wednesday a civil lawsuit filed by American lobbyist Harvey Goldstein

against The Asian Wall Street Journal for an article that described his

firm's involvement in a US$50,000 cash payment to a former Indonesian

minister.

 

In a document filed with the court, Goldstein's attorneys claimed that

his two companies, Harvest International Indonesia and Harvest

International Inc., had lost clients due to an April 5, 2005 front-page

article, titled " Seedy Indonesia Saga: Monsanto Pays to Settle

Allegations of

Bribery. "

 

" All the allegations made against the plaintiffs as implied by the

article are completely false and baseless, " the document, prepared by the

law firm of Sentot and Associates, says. " The article has caused

irreparable harm to the plaintiffs' business and reputation. "

 

The lawsuit mentions AWSJ journalists Peter Fritsch, Timothy Mapes, I

Made Sentana, Jay Solomon and Rini Hindriyati, and Dow Jones, which owns

the newspaper through Dow Jones Asia, as the parties responsible.

Goldstein is demanding $50 million in damages.

 

The 2,803-word article, written by Fritsch and Mapes, chronicles in

detail an alleged cash transfer by Monsanto to former environment

minister

Nabiel Makarim, which the article said was facilitated by Michael

Villarreal, an American ex-employee of Harvest International Indonesia.

Villarreal has made local media headlines for his marriage to Indonesian

celebrity, Sophia Latjuba.

 

The article said that Villarreal, with the knowledge of Goldstein,

handed over the cash in $100 bills personally to Makarim on Feb. 5, 2002,

in an effort to persuade him to modify a rule to allow genetically

modified cotton to be grown in Indonesia.

 

On Jan 6, Monsanto announced that it had agreed to pay a $1.5 million

penalty as part of an agreement with the United States Department of

Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission to settle charges of

violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act through its Indonesian

subsidiaries, PT Monagro Kimia and PT Branita Sandhini.

 

The settlement acknowledged that the company had paid over $700,000 in

bribes between 1997 and 2002, among them the $50,000 paid to a " senior

environmental official " through a " Jakarta-based investment consulting

firm. "

 

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is investigating the case.

 

Aside from the $50 million in indemnity, Goldstein, whose company has

been named by the KPK as the firm hired by Monsanto, is also seeking the

retraction of the article and an apology from the newspaper to be run

on its front page for a month.

 

He also asks the daily to refrain itself from using any material

related to Harvest International obtained from former and current

employees,

former and current clients, and government officials, as they were

" proprietary " to the companies.

 

A lawyer representing the accused, Todung Mulya Lubis, said the suit

filed against his clients was " reckless " and a " threat to the freedom of

the press " .

 

He also said that three of the individuals named in the lawsuit,

Sentana, Solomon and Rini, were not involved in writing the article.

 

None of the other individuals mentioned in the article, including

Nabiel, has sued the newspaper.

 

 

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