Company admitted chemicals released

Charges

National Wildlife Refuge.

Within days of the incident, Temple-Inland acknowledged that the mill had discharged chemicals into the Pearl River at higher than allowable levels, apologized and said it would assist with the cleanup. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the incident was Temple-Inland’s first significant water violation in Louisiana.

At the time, the Bogalusa paper mill was owned by Temple-Inland. But Temple-Inland in February 2012 was acquired by Memphis-based International Paper in a $4.3 billion deal. When the acquisition process began, Temple-Inland had 10,500 employees and annual revenue of about $3.8 billion.

“We have been cooperating with the Department of Justice in its investigation. We were aware that the charges were going to be filed,” Thomas Ryan, a spokesman for International Paper, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We do not intend to contest the charges.”

Company officials are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 31, according to court documents.

The court filings come shortly after International Paper paper said it plans to sell the former TempleInland building-products division to Georgia-Pacific LLC for $750 million. The assets being sold include 16 manufacturing facilities, located primarily in the southeastern and eastern United States.

Before it was acquired by International Paper, Temple-Inland had a long history as a Texas company. Founded by T.L.L. Temple in the East Texas town of Diboll in 1894 as a lumber company, Temple-Inland grew into a Fortune 500 conglomerate with interests in packaging, lumber, building products, real estate and banking.

In 2000, its headquarters moved to Austin, and in 2007 Temple-Inland spun off its banking and development businesses.

The newly independent bank, Austin-based Guaranty Financial Group, collapsed less than two years later, suffering from its exposure to toxic, mortgage-backed securities. At $13.5 billion in assets, Guaranty became and remains the fifth-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

While it had no direct involvement with the bank, International Paper in October agreed pay $42 million to settle Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. claims related to the Guaranty failure. Nokia, the company handles incentive compensation for workers in 40 countries.

Deyhimi declined to disclose the size of its workforce, but said it is less than 100. The company, which is headquartered downtown on Congress Avenue, plans to add up to 150 workers in Austin over the next two years in positions including sales, engineering and customer support, he said.