Protest launched over US state department nominee

By Greg Farrell and Francesco Guerrera in New York and Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: July 23 2009 01:35 | Last updated: July 23 2009 01:35

An advocacy group on Wednesday launched a campaign to derail the nomination of a Goldman Sachs executive to a high position in the US state department because of his past role in raising public funds for a Chinese company linked to Sudan.

Public Accountability Initiative, a not-for-profit organisation, said Robert Hormats, whom Barack Obama nominated this week as undersecretary of state for economic affairs, had made misleading comments about the 2000 listing for PetroChina, the Chinese energy group whose parent, CNPC, has been present in Sudan since 1996.

Vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International, Mr Hormats told the Wall Street Journal in 2000 that “Sudan should not be an issue because of extensive legal firewalls in place to ensure that IPO proceeds are used domestically in China.â€