Ford halts Land Rover sales in Sudan after SEC probes reports of use by military organizations

News Article by AP posted on May 01, 2007 at 21:28:42: EST (-5 GMT)

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co.'s Land Rover vehicles are
no longer being sold in Sudan after the Securities and Exchange
Commission asked the company about reports that some Land Rovers
may have been used by military or paramilitary organizations the
African nation.

The SEC on Tuesday released a letter dated Jan. 5 from Don
Leclair, Ford's chief financial officer, who was responding to a
Dec. 15 letter of inquiry from Cecilia D. Blye, chief of the SEC's
Office of Global Security Risk.

An SEC spokesman said such correspondences are not released to
the public for at least 45 days, following the completion of their
review by the agency.

Leclair's letter says the company's Land Rover subsidiary had
reached an agreement "in recent months" with its United
Kingdom-based distributor that handles all sales to Sudan "that no
further sales of Land Rover vehicles will be made into Sudan for
any purpose."

"Any such sales were lawful," he wrote, and the distributor
advised Ford "that the bulk of the small sales volume in Sudan had
been directed to the Ministry of the Interior for humanitarian
purposes and that other governmental sales had been largely for
agricultural development purposes."

Leclair's letter was in response to the letter from Blye that
says, in part, the SEC is "aware of published reports alleging
links between Sudan's Ministry of Interior and activities of the
Janjaweed militia in Darfur. We also are aware of published reports
that the Janjaweed and Sudanese military forces use machine
gun-mounted Land Rovers" during incursions against civilians in
Darfur, a region in western Sudan.

Blye asked Leclair to address the potential affect that such
reports could have on Ford's reputation and share value.

"These reports have not had a material impact on our reputation
or share value," he replied, noting that despite news reports and
public SEC filings on the matter, "we did not receive any
significant inquiries from our investors or the general public."