Deutsche Post's U.S. chief will testify in DHL probe
Wolfgang Pordzik, president of Deutsche Post World Net USA, will testify Friday in the ownership probe of the former DHL Airways. The time and place of Pordzik’s testimony has not yet been determined, said Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Post. The deposition will not be public.
Pordzik had previously agreed to testify, but then reneged after the July 14 sale of the airline to BD Air Partners, an investor group led by John Dasburg, the airline’s president and chief executive.
FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service have sought testimony from Pordzik and other top officials of Berlin-based Deutsche Post World Net and DHL International of Brussels to prove the latter companies control DHL Airways, now Astar Air Cargo, in violation of U.S. ownership laws. They have also asked the federal district court in Washington to order William Robinson, the former principal owner of DHL Airways, to testify. Robinson has refused on grounds that he no longer owns any shares in the airline.
In a press briefing Monday morning, Pordzik accused FedEx and UPS of conducting a fishing expedition, adding that the effort to compel testimony by Klaus Zumwinkel, Deutsche Post’s chief executive, and Uwe Doerken, DHL International’s chief executive, was designed simply to embarrass them.
“I don’t know what I can contribute,” said Pordzik, who repeated the charge by Deutsche Post and DHL that FedEx and UPS are seeking to preserve their duopoly in the U.S. market. He claimed that UPS, which has its European hub in Cologne, can operate more freely in Germany than DHL can in the U.S.
