Indian journalist alleges Enron bribe

Raghu Dhar has been a persistent critic of the project

An Indian journalist has alleged that failed US energy giant Enron attempted to bribe him after he criticised its operations in his country.

"They'd offered me a job as a corporate communications, corporate strategist not only in India but the whole of the region," Raghu Dhar, the business editor at India's Zee TV told the BBC's World Business Report.

The terms and conditions that were being put forward were 'heads I win, tails you lose', so I had no other option but not to side with something that would destroy our infrastructure, which happened ultimately

Raghu Dhar
India's Zee TV

"Because of I'm a journalist, I generally view this kind of offer to keep me off track because at that time I was really going after them," he said, adding that other journalists were also approached.

The allegation was first made on the US television programme '60 Minutes' last weekend but has been denied by Enron.

"It's rather an incredible statement and I am not aware of anything remotely like that having occurred," Enron spokesman John Ambler told WBR.

"Obviously we don't have all the people associated with the project still with the company, but one would think that if something like this had occurred it would have been brought up by one of (nearly 30) public interest lawsuits," he said.

Enron, once the seventh biggest US firm, sought Chapter 11 protection in December last year in the largest ever US bankruptcy.

The Dabhol project

Mr Dhar is known in India as one of the most fervent critics of the Dabhol power plant, that an Enron-led international consortium built in India's western Maharashtra state.

The 2,184-megawatt, liquid gas powered facility - one of the largest of its kind in the world - was built in the 1990s for a staggering price of $2.9bn.

"Before the (Dabhol) project got off the ground, a colleague and I had already begun a series of articles against them," Mr Dhar said.

"Even before Enron became fashionable, we had already begun to writing its obituary."

The Dabhol plant went into receivership earlier this month, after a Mauritius-registered subsidiary of Enron that owns that plant filed for bankruptcy in New York.

Ownership dispute

Dabhol is one of Enron's few remaining major assets still up for grabs, but the company has reportedly refused to sign a cooperation agreement to enable the sale.

"The terms and conditions that were being put forward were 'heads I win, tails you lose', so I had no other option but not to side with something that would destroy our infrastructure, which happened ultimately," said Mr Dhar of deal to build Dabhol.

Lead financier Industrial Development Bank of India and other Indian financial institutions, who provided the bulk of the $1.9bn in loans outstanding to the Dabhol Power, are keen to sell the 85% of foreign owned equity in the project.

The power plant has been taken over by receivers to ensure it is maintained after it began to rust.