Outrage over SEC terrorism ‘blacklist’




By Jeremy Grant

Some of the world’s biggest companies are outraged by a website link launched by US regulators aimed at exposing which of them could be “indirectly subsidising a terrorist state”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week linked to a list of five countries – Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria – designated by the State Department as “sponsors of terrorism”.

By clicking on each country, investors see a list of companies that mention that country in their latest annual reports. The companies are mostly non-US and include Unilever, Cadbury, HSBC, Nokia, Siemens and Total.

Christopher Cox, SEC chairman, described the site as falling under the commission’s investor-protection mission. “No investor should ever have to wonder whether his or her investments or retirement savings are indirectly subsidising a terrorist haven or genocidal state.”

But the companies are objecting because the list does not make clear the extent of a company’s business in such states or whether they still have ties.

Todd Malan, president of the Organisation for International Investment, representing 1,200 foreign companies with US listings, said: “My phone has been ringing off the hook. It makes it look like they are sitting around drinking tea in Tehran and writing big cheques.”

He said the list “had no threshold for judging whether a company does a material level of business in a country”.

Because the list linked to annual reports that could be out of date, it did not show which companies had started to divest from these states, he said. The SEC says appearing on the list does not “in itself mean that the company directly or indirectly supports terrorism”.

“These companies have reported this information to shareholders in their regulatory filings. That’s the official record these companies have reported and that is the record this tool helps investors access. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Schlumberger, the Houston-based oilfield services group, is one of 32 companies listed under Sudan

Yet since its annual report was published, it has committed to expanding its humanitarian activities in the country, says Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Taskforce, which has persuaded 18 US states to divest from Sudan.

He said the company was not on his group’s list. “It’s [the SEC’s list] spun as a blacklist. Not a single company that we target for their operations in Sudan is covered by the SEC’s tool,” he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007