AUT: The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade (fwd)

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 08:21:14 -0500
From: Eric Hayes Patkowski <ehpatkowski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: accion-zapatista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: Accion Zapatista <accion-zapatista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade

>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, 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.
>
>
>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
>
>
>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
>Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
>Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
>Hunt for Mega Profits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
>Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org)
>
>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

--
Eric Hayes Patkowski
ehpatkowski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://irsm.org/ (The Irish Republican Socialist Movement)
"Let the fight go on!" - Patsy O'Hara, IRSP/INLA hunger striker, 21 May 81



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