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To: John Carragher who wrote (85049)	9/12/2008 4:47:10 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Respond to of 116555

It sounds like a certain Chevron employee might have ended their career by dating a female government official. We'll see. The government official in question also ran a side-business selling sex toys. Dating someone you're doing business with is not a brilliant idea, but it does happen occasionally and people pay the price when they're caught. I used to have lunch frequently with the BLM Regional Director in Reno Nevada but we each paid for our own sandwiches according to government regulations. I'm sure our lunches totaled more than $500 per year, but she informed me of BLM ethics when I initially offered to pay for lunch. I was 26 at the time and she was roughly 55. She was a good mentor and friend to me and I learned a lot from her. I'd be surprised if she sold sex toys on the side. On the other hand, if she had wanted to take me out to lunch on her expense account, that would have been ethical for me - up to a rather limited value. I got to memorize those limits when I was a Purchasing Agent for a few month in Chevron Shipping. When Mitsubishi or Alfa Laval salespeople called on us, I could accept a lunch (and something like a pen and pencil set worth under $50 with my manager's approval). The President of Chevron Shipping was authorized to receive a more expensive gift like a small desk clock (under $250). We had to report all gifts. The Federal, State and local governments are usually more stringent - often not permitting their employees to accept so much as a cup of coffee. In contrast, Exxon has often been caught hiring a local law firm to give a decision maker an envelope filled with $10k or more in cash. That's not an employee dating someone they work with, that's a corporate policy of bribery. Quite a horse of a different ethical color. sfgate.com voices.washingtonpost.com It's alleged that a Chevron employee reportedly provided meals and drinks worth a total of just under $2,500 to a government official over the course of five years. One of the female government employees who had official business with Chevron also had a romantic relationship with a Chevron employee, as well as with an employee from Shell, according to the report. Chevron has turned over more than 13,000 pages of e-mails and expense records that are cited repeatedly in the government investigative report. But Chevron company spokesman Don Campbell said "The individual employees have individual rights to decide whether to accept the interviews with government investigators" he said. Campbell wouldn't say whether the company had disciplined any employees over the report's allegations but said the company is conducting its own investigation. "We take any allegation of ethics violations by our employees very seriously," he said. "We began an investigation of the allegations right away, when we first got wind of it. We've been looking at this for a while." .