WSJ Europe scam: HCL Tech denies payment to Dutch firm

HCL Technologies has denied any relationship with Executive Learning Partnership, the Dutch firm at the heart of the controversy over the Wall Street Journal Europe 's circulation programme.

“HCL has had no contractual arrangement with ELP. It has made no payments – either directly or indirectly,” the firm said in a statement on Thursday. “Any arrangement that may exist between ELP and Wall Street Journal Europe , is entirely a matter between those companies,” it added. However, the firm hasn't confirmed who the payments were made directly to.

In the article first published on October 12,

The Guardian cites HCL as one of the ‘best examples' of third parties used to channel funds to ELP.

The Guardian and the Wall Street Journal have reported that an arrangement had been struck between EPL and the Wall Street Journal Europe by which the Dutch firm bought 12,000 copies of the paper at a knock-down price of €1 cent each for a two-year period, accounting for a significant portion of the paper's circulation. Two positive articles featuring ELP in the WSJ Europe have raised questions about editorial integrity at the paper, and triggered the resignation of the paper's publisher Mr Andrew Langhoff. WSJ Europe denies any impropriety in the circulation deal struck with the ELP, arguing it had been certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulation in the UK

HCL, The Guardian reports, had agreed to pay €16,000 to the Wall Street Journal to organise a conference at London's Grosvenor House Hotel (now owned by the Sahara Group) last September. But instead of requesting to be paid directly, WSJ wanted the money to be passed to a Belgian publishing firm, which made a payment of €8,000 to ELP, the paper says. HCL paid the Belgian firm €2,000 but failed to make the second payment as a result of a dispute, The Guardian reports. The paper quotes a letter from the Belgian publisher's managing director stating it had “agreed to be a facilitator in a payment process between the Journal, HCL and ELP as per request of the Journal.”

HCL Technologies confirmed it agreed to pay for a seminar in London, and a series of international workshops as part of the Wall Street Journal Europe 's Future Leadership Institute. A payment of £10,000 was made according to the contract, the paper says, but HCL does not confirm whether this was made directly to the WSJ Europe . (It says it didn't go ahead with the rest of the contract as it wasn't satisfied that the remaining agreed scope could be reached.).

The news came as the Audit Bureau of Circulation confirmed that it would be investigating the WSJ Europe circulation figures it had certified. While an audit last year found “the scheme to be in order,” new information may give grounds for further investigation, the industry body for media measurement in the UK said.

Just two months ago, HCL told a British parliamentary committee that it was been involved (though not directly) in nine episodes of e-mails being deleted at News International since April 2010 but denied knowing anything was amiss.