Topeka ? Westar Energy Inc. has disclosed that it investigated 10 people, not three as previously acknowledged, in seeking the source of suspected news leaks in 2001, an attorney for a group of Westar customers said in a petition filed Thursday with state regulators.

The investigations targeted three former Westar executives, three former executives with a Westar subsidiary, two journalists, a consumer advocate and the author of postings on an Internet message board, according to the document.

An internal report released in May by Westar’s board of directors had listed just three targets: former Westar chief executive officer John E. Hayes; former Westar chief financial officer Steve Kitchen; and a reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal, who eventually was identified as Jim McLean.

Westar provided the additional seven names this week in response to a request for information from attorney James Zakoura, who represents large industrial customers of Westar. Zakoura included the names in a petition he filed Thursday with the Kansas Corporation Commission seeking to force Westar to publicly release the reports on the individuals.

The investigations were conducted while David C. Wittig was Westar’s president and CEO. Wittig resigned in November 2002 to defend himself against federal charges of bank fraud in a case unrelated to Westar. He was convicted by a jury last month and is awaiting sentencing.

After Wittig’s departure, Westar’s new leadership commissioned an internal review that, among other disclosures, turned up the investigations of Hayes, Kitchen and McLean, who is now director of public affairs for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

According to the expanded list, Westar also investigated Bernard Condon of Forbes magazine; Walker Hendrix, formerly the chief attorney for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board; and an individual who signed messages posted on the Internet as “gladstonehappyrock.”

Also investigated were four people formerly associated with Westar: William “Rayford” Price, who was an executive of the company; and John B. Wing, John L. Davis and Lorenzo C. Lamadrid, all former executives of the Wing Group, which ran Westar’s overseas operations.

Westar spokeswoman Karla Olsen said the May report had focused on activities involving senior management.

“Why there were three in the (May) report and 10 investigated, we don’t know,” Olsen said Thursday.

In a footnote to the directors’ internal report, investigators for a New York City law firm, wrote, “We also learned that an investigative agency was retained to conduct background investigations of certain people, including Mr. Hayes, Mr. Kitchen and a Topeka Capital-Journal reporter.”

Hendrix is now an executive of Kansas Gas Service. David Springe, his successor as chief attorney of the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board, found the new disclosures about the scope of Westar’s investigations troubling.

“There are a few more than we had anticipated,” he said. “What were they going to do with this information if they got something good?”