DaimlerChrysler’s chief executive is reportedly willing to provide further testimony about the 1998 merger that formed the company, in response to demands by lawyers acting for billionaire Kirk Kerkorian who has denounced the tie-up as a fraud.
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According to Reuters, the offer came in a letter to judge Joseph Farnan of US District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, where Kerkorian lawyers filed a motion insisting that DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp be made available for further questioning.
“Without conceding that it is necessary or appropriate, defendants are willing to recall Mr. Schrempp at trial,” DaimlerChrysler reportedly said in its letter to Farnan.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was dated January 27 and signed by Tom Allingham, one of the lead lawyers defending DaimlerChrysler in the trial of Kerkorian’s high-profile fraud suit.
The news agency noted that Schrempp, who led the $US36 billion deal that created the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, defended what he has long billed as a “merger of equals” during three days of testimony in front of Farnan last month.
But attorneys for Kerkorian’s Tracinda investment firm submitted their demand for further Schrempp testimony on grounds that critical new evidence had been produced by the defence after he took the stand, Reuters added.
The report said they were referring to documents – mostly hand-written notes by former Chrysler chief financial officer Gary Valade – that forced a sudden suspension of the trial in mid-December, when DaimlerChrysler said they had been overlooked and never shown to Kerkorian’s lawyers.
Valade was a senior figure in the merger negotiations and Tracinda reportedly claims that his notes put the testimony of all previous witnesses in the fraud trial in a different light.
Tuesday’s letter, reportedly in answer to another request from Tracinda, also said DaimlerChrysler was willing to try to have former Chrysler president Thomas Stallkamp recalled to testify in the fraud trial.
Reuters noted that the letter said that, if Schrempp and Stallkamp were to take the stand again, it would be “solely for the purpose of answering questions directly relating to Mr. Valade’s notes.”
Reuters added that Farnan had scheduled a teleconference with opposing sides in the lawsuit for Tuesday, but a court clerk said it had been delayed until Friday afternoon, giving no reason.
