Lucent fires four executives in China

NEWARK -- Telecommunications gear maker Lucent Technologies said yesterday it is firing four executives at its unit in China after finding possible violations of US bribery laws.

Lucent said its investigation in China was among two dozen done at its foreign operations, prompted by bribery allegations involving its Saudi Arabian unit, which the company disclosed in August.

The company said it ''found incidents and internal control deficiencies" in its operations in China that potentially involve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.

The nature and specifics of the potential violations were not disclosed. The Murray Hill, N.J., company said it gave the findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

Lucent, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it was removing the unit's president, chief operating officer, a marketing executive, and a finance manager. The filing did not name the executives, and a Lucent spokesman declined to give their names.

Lucent said it believes the situation in China did not have an impact on its financial results, but said it cannot determine now what effect the matter might have on future business operations there.

The company said it is cooperating with the SEC and the Justice Department investigations.

The audit covered nearly half of Lucent's overseas operations, including those in Brazil, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia, Lucent said.

The wholly owned Beijing-based unit in China, formally known as Lucent Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., has 3,000 employees, the company said.

Lucent China has eight regional offices, two Bell Labs branches, and five research facilities, in addition to joint ventures and wholly owned enterprises. The unit manufactures telecommunications network equipment and solutions for the Chinese and global markets.

A Saudi Arabian company, Silki-La-Silkia National Telecom Ltd., sued Lucent in August, claiming Lucent executives bribed Saudi Arabia's former telecommunications minister with cash and gifts worth $15 million to $21 million from 1995 through 2002.

The suit said Lucent paid the money to gain billions of dollars of business from the Saudi Telecommunications Co., the country's monopoly wireless provider.