Law enforcement officials searching Caterpillar offices

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PEORIA, IL – (Click on this link to follow this and several stories from the staff of the Peoria Journal-Star. Here is an excerpt of the lead story) Federal officials seized documents and electronic records from three Caterpillar Inc. facilities, including the global headquarters Downtown, on Thursday morning as an apparent part of a criminal investigation into the company’s tax strategy. Agents from an alphabet soup of federal agencies lined up outside the main administration building, a data center in East Peoria and the logistics center in Morton. Neither federal nor company officials would confirm the substance of the investigation. “Caterpillar is cooperating,” a brief statement from the company read. The investigation appears to stem from revelations about the company’s tax strategy as outlined in a 2009 federal wrongful termination lawsuit brought by Daniel Schlicksup. The lawsuit alleged the company shifted profits overseas and to offshore shell companies to avoid paying more than $2 billion in U.S. taxes. Schlicksup settled the suit in 2012.