-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ZNet Commentary / Nov 1 / Mokhiber and Weissman / Corporate Criminals Date sent: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 19:58:10 -0000 ------------------------------- The Criminal Element By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman The criminal element has seeped deep into every nook and cranny of American society. Forget about the underworld -- these crooks dominate every aspect of our market, culture, and politics. They cast a deep dark shadow over life in turn of the century America. We buy gas from them (Exxon, Chevron, Unocal). We take pictures with their cameras and film (Eastman Kodak). We drink their beer (Coors). We buy insurance from them to guard against financial catastrophe if we get sick (Blue Cross Blue Shield). And then when we get sick, we buy pharmaceuticals from them (Pfizer, Warner Lambert, Ortho Pharmaceuticals). We do our laundry washers and dryers from them (General Electric). We vacation with them (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines). We buy our food from them (Archer Daniels Midland, Southland, Tyson Foods, U.S. Sugar). We drive with them (Hyundai) and fly with them (Korean Air Lines). All of these companies and more turned up on Corporate Crime Reporter's list of the Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, released this past week at a news conference at the National Press Club. Standing before a roomful of reporters and cameras (including a C-Span camera which took us live to our TV nation), we made the following points: Every year, the major business magazines put out their annual surveys of big business in America. You have the Fortune 500, the Forbes 400, the Forbes Platinum 100, the International 800 -- among others. These lists rank big corporations by sales, assets, profits and market share. The point of these surveys is simple -- to identify and glorify the biggest and most profitable corporations. The point of releasing The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade, on the other hand, was to focus public attention on the pervasive criminality that has corrupted the marketplace and that is given little sustained attention and analysis by politicians and news outlets. To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, we used the most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined. And still, with the most narrow and conservative of definitions of corporate crime, we came up with society's most powerful actors. Six corporations that made the list of the Top 100 Corporate Criminals were criminal recidivist companies during the 1990s. Exxon, Royal Caribbean, Rockwell International, Warner-Lambert, Teledyne, and United Technologies each pled guilty to more than one crime during the 1990s. And we warned that we in no way imply that these corporations are in any way the worst or have committed the most egregious crimes. We did not try to assess and compare the damage committed by these corporate criminals or by other corporate wrongdoers. We warned that companies that are criminally prosecuted represent only the tip of a very large iceberg of corporate wrongdoing. For every company convicted of health care fraud, there are hundreds of others who get away with ripping off Medicare and Medicaid, or face only mild slap-on-the-wrist fines and civil penalties when caught. For every company convicted of polluting the nation's waterways, there are many others who are not prosecuted because their corporate defense lawyers are able to offer up a low-level employee to go to jail in exchange for a promise from prosecutors not to touch the company or high-level executives. For every corporation convicted of bribery or of giving money directly to a public official in violation of federal law, there are thousands who give money legally through political action committees to candidates and political parties. They profit from a system that effectively has legalized bribery. For every corporation convicted of selling illegal pesticides, there are hundreds more who are not prosecuted because their lobbyists have worked their way in Washington to ensure that dangerous pesticides remain legal. For every corporation convicted of reckless homicide in the death of a worker, there are hundreds of others that don't even get investigated for reckless homicide when a worker is killed on the job. Only a few district attorneys across the country (Michael McCann, the DA in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, being one) regularly investigate workplace deaths as homicides. We pointed out that corporations define the laws under which they live. An argument can be made that the most egregious wrongful corporate acts -- the genetic engineering of the food supply, or the systematic pollution of the nation's air and waterways, or the bribery by corporate criminals of the political parties -- are totally legal. For your convenience, at the end of this commentary, we print here the list of 100 crooks that fall well within a very conservative definition of criminality. Carry this list wherever you go, and when the subject turns to crime, feel free to pull out the list and lash the criminal element. But What Do We Do? A Law and Order Regulation for Corporations If you commit a felony, you lose the right to vote. What happens to corporations that break the law? They don't have the right to vote. But do they lose any rights or privileges? In what may be one of its most important corporate accountability initiatives (there haven't been many), the Clinton administration is suggesting that chronic violators of labor, environmental, tax, antitrust or employment laws should be denied the privilege of entering contracts with the federal government. Vice President Gore first floated the idea in a 1997 speech to the AFL-CIO. A business outcry persuaded the administration to put the proposal on hold, but two years later it decided to move forward. In July the administration proposed regulations that would clarify federal procurement officers' duty to ensure that government contractors have a "satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics." Under the regulations, corporations that repeatedly or seriously transgress worker rights, health, safety, environmental, tax or antitrust laws would be deemed ineligible for federal government contracts. Big business is up in arms about the proposal -- a sign that it may be of consequence. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with an alphabet-soup full of business trade associations have organized the National Alliance Against Blacklisting to block the proposal. The Alliance is planning a full-blown campaign against the regulations. It is revving up arguments about how the regulations would bestow on procurement officers the power to act arbitrarily, how corporations could be unfairly penalized for failing to comply with confusing and technical federal rules, and how the regulations improperly side the federal government with labor in labor-management disputes. The business groups are right about one thing: the Clinton administration has hit upon a potentially powerful tool to discipline large corporations. The federal government spends approximately $200 billion a year on procurement, buying goods and services from firms that employ approximately 20 percent of the U.S. workforce. Government contracts make up a significant revenue stream for many firms, including many of the largest companies in the country. In refusing to contract with polluting, consumer-cheating, racially or sexually discriminating, tax-avoiding, clearcutting, price-fixing and other miscreant companies, the government can leverage its buying power to promote more responsible corporate behavior. Consider the issues of worker rights and worker safety. A 1995 study by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the congressional research agency, found that 80 federal contractors, receiving more than $23 billion in federal government business in fiscal year 1993, had violated the National Labor Relations Act. Six contractors -- McDonnell Douglas, Westinghouse, Raytheon, United Technologies, AT&T and Fluor -- received almost 90 percent of the $23 billion. A 1996 GAO study found that 261 federal contractors, receiving more than $38 billion in federal government business in fiscal year 1994, received penalties of at least $15,000 for violating Occupational Safety and Health Act regulations. The biggest of these contractors included General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, United Technologies, General Motors, Boeing and Textron. The current U.S. labor law regime imposes virtually no meaningful penalties on businesses that violate worker rights. The standard sanction imposed against a company that fires a worker for supporting a union is an order to reinstate the worker with back pay -- there are no punitive damages available. Serious violators of workplace health and safety regulations typically walk away with small fines. By contrast, the threat of losing major government contracts is a much more serious and costly penalty. The proposed procurement regulations would make federal contractors much more wary of recklessly disregarding worker rights and worker safety. Given the generally weak penalties for corporate law-breaking in the United States, the same holds in other spheres. Too frequently, corporations are able to brush off fines and sanctions for law-breaking. When corporations calculate, overtly or implicitly, whether they should respect the law, they consider the odds of getting caught and the size of the likely penalty if they are caught. Other factors go into such decisions of course -- potential civil liability, the social pressure to comply with the law or simple respect for the law -- but no one seriously doubts that enforcement vigor and the size of sanctions affect corporate adherence to the law. If the regulation, really a very modest step, is enacted, the answer to the question, "Do corporate law breakers lose any privileges or rights?" will finally be, "Yes." --------------------------------- For more details on the proposed regulation, see the Essential Action web page, http://www.essentialaction.org/anti-scofflaw. The federal government is now accepting comments on the proposed regulation. Business groups are weighing in heavily against it; and so if the proposal is to be enacted, it is vital that citizens and public interest groups submit comments in support of the regulation. It is easy to submit comments -- even a comment that says nothing more than, "I support the principle that the federal government should not contract with companies that seriously transgress the law" is valuable, and comments can be submitted by e-mail (as well as regular mail). For background on the proposed regulation, and tips on what to say in comments, see the Essential Action web page, http://www.essentialaction.org/anti-scofflaw. You can e-mail comments directly to the agency from this page. THE TOP 100 CORPORATE CRIMINALS OF THE 1990S 1) F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $500 million 2) Daiwa Bank Ltd. Type of Crime: Financial Criminal Fine: $340 million 3) BASF Aktiengesellschaft Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $225 million 4) SGL Carbon Aktiengesellschaft (SGL AG) Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $135 million 5) Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $125 million 6) UCAR International, Inc. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $110 million 7) Archer Daniels Midland Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $100 million 8)(tie) Banker's Trust Type of Crime: Financial Criminal Fine: $60 million 8)(tie) Sears Bankruptcy Recovery Management Services Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $60 million 10) Haarman & Reimer Corp. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal fine: $50 million 11) Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $37 million 12) Hoechst AG Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $36 million 13) Damon Clinical Laboratories, Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $35.2 million 14) C.R. Bard Inc. Type of Crime: Food and drug Criminal Fine: $30.9 million 7 Corporate Crime Reporter 41(1), October 25, 1993 15) Genentech Inc. Type of Crime: Food and drug Criminal Fine: $30 million 16) Nippon Gohsei Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $21 million 17)(tie) Pfizer Inc. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $20 million 17)(tie) Summitville Consolidated Mining Co. Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $20 million 10 Corporate Crime Reporter 20(3) May 20, 1996 19)(tie) Lucas Western Inc. Type of Crime: False Statements Criminal Fine: $18.5 million 9 Corporate Crime Reporter 4(6), January 30, 1995 19)(tie) Rockwell International Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $18.5 million 21) Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $18 million 22) Teledyne Industries Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $17.5 million 23) Northrop Type of Crime: False statements Criminal Fine: $17 million 24) Litton Applied Technology Division (ATD) and Litton Systems Canada (LSL) Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $16.5 million 25) Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $15 million 26) Eastman Chemical Company Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $11 million 27) Copley Pharmaceutical, Inc. Type of Crime: Food and drug Criminal Fine: $10.65 million 28) Lonza AG Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $10.5 million 29) Kimberly Home Health Care Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $10.08 million 30)(tie) Ajinomoto Co. Inc. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $10 million 30)(tie) Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Type of Crime: Financial Criminal Fine: $10 million 30)(tie) Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $10 million 30)(tie) Warner-Lambert Company Type of Crime: Food and drug Criminal Fine: $10 million 34) General Electric Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $9.5 million 35)(tie) Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $9 million 35)(tie) Showa Denko Carbon Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $9 million 37) IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd. Type of Crime: Illegal exports Criminal Fine: $8.5 million 38) Empire Sanitary Landfill Inc. Type of crime: Campaign finance Criminal fine: $8 million 39)(tie) Colonial Pipeline Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $7 million 39)(tie) Eklof Marine Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $7 million 41)(tie) Chevron Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $6.5 million 41)(tie) Rockwell International Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $6.5 million 43) Tokai Carbon Ltd. Co. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $6 million 44)(tie) Allied Clinical Laboratories, Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $5 million 44)(tie) Northern Brands International Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $5 million 44)(tie) Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation Type of Crime: Obstruction of justice Criminal Fine: $5 million 44)(tie) Unisys Type of Crime: Bribery Criminal Fine: $5 million 44)(tie) Georgia Pacific Corporation Type of Crime: Tax evasion Criminal Fine: $5 million 5 Corporate Crime Reporter 38(8), October 7, 1991 49) Kanzaki Specialty Papers Inc. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $4.5 million 50) ConAgra Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $4.4 million 51) Ryland Mortgage Company Type of Crime: Financial Criminal Fine: $4.2 million 52)(tie) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $4 million 52)(tie) Borden Inc. Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $4 million 52)(tie) Dexter Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $4 million 52)(tie) Southland Corporation Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $4 million 52)(tie) Teledyne Industries Inc. Type of Crime: Illegal exports Criminal Fine: $4 million 52)(tie) Tyson Foods Inc. Type of Crime: Public corruption Criminal Fine: $4 million 58)(tie) Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3.75 million 58)(tie) Costain Coal Inc. Type of Crime: Worker Death Criminal Fine: $3.75 million 58)(tie) United States Sugar Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3.75 million 61) Saybolt, Inc., Saybolt North America Type of Crime: Environmental, bribery Criminal Fine: $3.4 million 62)(tie) Bristol-Myers Squibb Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3 million 62)(tie) Chemical Waste Management Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3 million 62)(tie) Ketchikan Pulp Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3 million 62)(tie) United Technologies Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3 million 62)(tie) Warner-Lambert Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $3 million 67)(tie) Arizona Chemical Co. Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2.5 million 67)(tie) Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2.5 million 69) International Paper Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2.2 million 70)(tie) Consolidated Edison Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2 million 70)(tie) Crop Growers Corporation Type of Crime: Campaign finance Criminal fine: $2 million 70)(tie) E-Systems Inc. Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $2 million 70)(tie) HAL Beheer BV Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2 million 70)(tie) John Morrell and Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $2 million 70)(tie) United Technologies Corporation Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $2 million 76) Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi International Corporation Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $1.8 million 77)(tie) Blue Shield of California Type of Crime: Fraud Criminal Fine: $1.5 million 77)(tie) Browning-Ferris Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $1.5 million 77)(tie) Odwalla Inc. Type of Crime: Food and drug Criminal Fine: $1.5 million 77)(tie) Teledyne Inc. Type of Crime: False statements Criminal Fine: $1.5 million 77)(tie) Unocal Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $1.5 million 82)(tie) Doyon Drilling Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $1 million 82)(tie) Eastman Kodak Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $1 million 82)(tie) Case Corporation Type of Crime: Illegal exports Criminal Fine: $1 million 85) Marathon Oil Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $900,000 86) Hyundai Motor Company Type of Crime: Campaign finance Criminal Fine: $600,000 87)(tie) Baxter International Inc. Type of Crime: Illegal Boycott Criminal Fine: $500,000 87)(tie) Bethship-Sabine Yard Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $500,000 87(tie) Palm Beach Cruises Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $500,000 87)(tie) Princess Cruises Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $500,000 91)(tie) Cerestar Bioproducts BV Type of Crime: Antitrust Criminal Fine: $400,000 91)(tie) Sun-Land Products of California Type of Crime: Campaign finance Criminal Fine: $400,000 93)(tie) American Cyanamid Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $250,000 93)(tie) Korean Air Lines Type of Crime: Campaign finance Criminal Fine: $250,000 93)(tie) Regency Cruises Inc. Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $250,000 96)(tie) Adolph Coors Company Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $200,000 96)(tie) Andrew and Williamson Sales Co. Type of crime: Food and drug Criminal fine: $200,000 96)(tie) Daewoo International (America) Corporation Type of Fine: Campaign finance Criminal Fine: $200,000 96)(tie) Exxon Corporation Type of Crime: Environmental Criminal Fine: $200,000 100) Samsung America Inc. Type of Crime: Campaign finance Criminal Fine: $150,000 A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." Ernest Hemingway + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
