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Texaco conspiracy alleged
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November 4, 1996: 10:57 a.m. ET
Execs reportedly planned to destroy documents in discrimination suit
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) --A group of senior executives at Texaco Inc. apparently planned to destroy documents sought by a government investigation into racial discrimination at the oil company, The New York Times reported Monday.
The paper said a group of minority employees who had filed a suit against the company for discrimination had presented a taped conversation among senior company executives to U.S. District Court in White Plains, New York.
Quoting from transcripts of the conversation, the newspaper said the executives at an August 1994 meeting conspired to destroy documents that could be used against them in the case.
It also said they made racist comments about the employees.
The conversation, which was secretly taped by one of the executives at the meeting, has become the center of the proceeding.
The recording, in which the executives are heard referring to black employees as "black jelly beans" and "niggers," considerably raises the stakes in the suit brought against Texaco by six company employees on behalf of as many as 1,500 other minority employees.
The suit, filed in early 1994, asserts that Texaco systematically discriminates against minority employees in promotions, and has fostered a racially hostile environment.
Texaco said it had not yet heard the tapes, but a lawyer representing the company told the Times that Texaco was "shocked and dismayed" by the words attributed to the executives, adding that they constituted "a clear violation of Texaco policy."
The company said has appointed an outside lawyer to conduct an independent investigation and that it would make referrals to law enforcement agencies if its inquiry found that documents were destroyed.
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