Dissidents send letter to SEC

Thursday, August 12, 2004

PAUL WYCHE

THE SAGINAW NEWS

MIDLAND -- A request from shareholders for a federal probe into alleged misleading statements by Dow Chemical Co. is prompting no admission of guilt from the manufacturer.

Earlier this week, dissident stockholders sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate what their attorney, Sanford Lewis, called "a number of inadequacies and irregularities in disclosures and public statements" related to the 1984 Bhopal, India, chemical plant explosion, dioxin contamination and the company's production of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange.

The statements in question were made during Dow's annual meeting in May.

Dow spokesman John Musser said the shareholders are critics of the chemical giant who have "gotten a hold of some Dow stock," thus giving them the right to formally protest.

Nonetheless, he said their complaints are false and "nothing new."

"We stand by our previous position," Musser said. "We've done everything that is required by law, but what they're asking is for us to speculate on things that we don't think require any additional explanation."

The Bhopal chemical leak occurred when Union Carbide owned the plant. Union Carbide settled its liability with the Indian government in 1989. Dow bought the company in 2001, and the dissident shareholders claim Dow now bears continued liability for the leak.

At the annual meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly voted against a resolution by three investors of the same group who wanted a corporate report on the Bhopal incident. t

Paul Wyche covers business for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9674.

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