SemGroup’s ex-CEO fights its demands

BY DON MECOY

Published: November 11, 2008

Tom Kivisto, co-founder and fired chief executive officer of now-bankrupt SemGroup LP, has objected to the company’s attempts to obtain financial documents from him, including his tax returns.

SemGroup last month fired Kivisto, who had been placed on leave after the company filed for bankruptcy in July, disclosing that the company lost billions of dollars in the oil futures trading market. SemGroup’s filing also revealed that Kivisto apparently was running his own speculative trading operation as he owed $290 million to the company.

Kivisto, in a filing Friday with the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, asked a judge to deny the company’s demands that he turn over financial documents from a variety of entities, including ones unrelated to the bankruptcy, the filing said.

The objection also claims that SemGroup’s request for tax returns of Kivisto and his wife is "an unwarranted intrusion on Kivisto’s and his wife’s personal affairs,” the court document said.

Company’s actions

Kivisto also asked the court to require the company to coordinate its efforts to question him with those of the creditors’ committee and the federal examiner appointed to investigate the company’s actions prior to the bankruptcy. Former FBI director Louis Freeh has been appointed to examine claims that the company and its executives violated its loan covenants and corporate policies in its energy trading program.

The company in an earlier filing claimed that Kivisto had not voluntarily agreed to meet with SemGroup representatives. SemGroup also is seeking documents and testimony from former corporate treasurer Brent Cooper.

Kivisto, in the filing, also said the company barred him from his office on July 21 and has been denied access to anything in that office. SemGroup has never "articulated any cause” for Kivisto’s firing, the former chief executive officer said in his filing.