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Attorney General Roy Cooper is seeking more documents in his probe of the Duke Energy-Progress Energy merger.
Cooper’s staff on Friday demanded records from the Indianapolis firm of Michael Browning, a longtime Duke director, and from a New York communications company that did work for Duke.
The attorney general’s staff, which defends consumer interests, demanded a broad array of documents from Duke last week. Duke has until July 31 to comply.
The new “investigative demands” tell Browning to produce emails and other correspondence related to Duke or Progress business and their merger since January 2011, when it was announced. It also asks for documents between Browning and other board members, including CEO Jim Rogers; board-related travel records; and Browning’s telephone records.
Browning, president of a real estate development firm, has been a director of Duke or its predecessor companies since 1990. In testimony before the N.C. Utilities Commission on Tuesday, Rogers said Browning and lead director Ann Gray told him June 23 of the board’s doubts about Progress CEO Bill Johnson’s ability to lead the combined companies.
The board asked for Johnson’s resignation on July 2, soon after closing the merger.
The attorney general also demanded records from Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, a New York firm that does investor relations, corporate, crisis and transaction communications. The firm has done work for Duke, a Cooper spokesman said.
The demand asks Joele Frank for documents and communication between it and Duke officials, travel and phone records and contracts.
In other merger-related news Friday, Duke named Keith Trent, who was in charge of its commercial businesses, as executive vice president for regulated utilities. Trent replaces former Progress executive John McArthur, who resigned this week in the wake of Johnson’s departure.
Trent joined Duke in 2002 as general counsel for litigation. He previously led the company’s regulated utilities from 2006 to 2009.
The Utilities Commission, meanwhile, denied a motion by a Durham advocacy group, the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, to intervene in its merger investigation.
