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 | Starbucks: Espresso for Investors, Watery Americano in UK Taxes
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
October 26th, 2012
Starbucks, the Seattle-based international coffee chain, has been accused of tax avoidance in the UK. Between 1998 and 2011 the company has made £3 billion in sales but paid out just £8.6 million in taxes on sales from its 735 stores in the country. |
 | Damming the Ngäbe: Aftermath of an AES Power Project in Panama
by Jennifer Kennedy
October 15th, 2012
Well over a year after AES Corporation, a U.S. based power company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, inundated the lands of the Ngäbe to build a hydroelectric dam in Panama, many in the community remains dispossessed. |
 | Seven Irish Banks Investigated for Insurance Scam
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
October 8th, 2012
Seven Irish banks are being investigated by the Central Bank of Ireland for selling consumers insurance policies that they did not need. Tens of thousands of Irish consumers could get as much as €3,000 ($3,900) each in refunds. |
 | BP Wants To Blame Workers For Deepwater Horizon Spill, Says U.S.
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
September 27th, 2012
BP, the British oil company, is attempting to blame "blue collar workers" for the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, alleges the U.S. government. Federal lawyers say the company is trying to divert attention from management failures of "gross negligence." |
 | Private Prison for Asylum Seekers on Pacific Island
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
September 17th, 2012
Transfield Services, an Australian logistics company that provides services to the mining and oil industry among others, has won a $25.9 million contract from the government of Australia to run a detention center for asylum seekers in the Pacific island nation of Nauru. |
 | Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycott
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
September 11th, 2012
Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. |
 | Big Tobacco Battles Advertising Restrictions
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
August 30th, 2012
Big Tobacco is fighting a multi-pronged battle to defeat a global wave of laws to force them to use graphic warning labels and plain packaging. It has won a major legal battle in the U.S. this month but it has lost in Australia. |
 | Obama Administration Backs Shell in Supreme Court Case
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
August 24th, 2012
The Obama administration is backing Shell Oil after abruptly changing sides in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that could make it even more difficult for survivors of human rights abuses overseas to sue multinational corporations in federal courts. The case will be heard on October 1. |
 | Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
August 16th, 2012
Seven international banks have been served with subpoenas over the global interest setting scandal. Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS – have been asked to provide relevant “documents and communications” to the New York attorney-general. |
 | Blackwater Pays Millions To Settle Arms Smuggling Charges
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
August 9th, 2012
Blackwater has agreed to pay the U.S. government $7.5 million to settle 17 federal criminal charges that include supplying guns to the king of Jordan and offering private security and military training services to South Sudan without a license. |
 | Clash At Maruti Suzuki Car Factory Reflects Failures Of India, Inc.
by Freny Manecksha, CorpWatch Blog
July 30th, 2012
Hundreds of workers at a Haryana factory for India's biggest carmaker - Maruti Suzuki - are being rounded up by police after a violent clash left a manager dead. The incident has become a symbol of the clash between winners and losers in the country's economic boom. |
 | Bolivia pushes back against Swiss commodities giant Glencore
by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch Blog
July 24th, 2012
Glencore corporation, the secretive Swiss commodities giant which has become one of the world's biggest trader of grain, oil and minerals, has hit an unlikely roadblock. The Bolivian government nationalized the Colquiri tin and zinc mine, the third Glencore asset to be seized by the state in five years. |
 | Private Hedge Fund "Alpha" Surveys Allow Wealthy Clients to Profit From "Insider" Views
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
July 17th, 2012
BlackRock and Two Sigma Investments – both major hedge funds - have been conducting regular private surveys of brokers for wealthy clients. The practice has raised red flags because of Morgan Stanley's role in the Facebook stock market flotation, as well as insider trading scandals at Goldman Sachs. |
 | Protestors Halt Copper Alloy Plant In Sichuan Province
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
July 11th, 2012
Protestors have forced Sichuan Hongda to cancel plans to build a $1.6 billion copper alloy plant in Shifang city in southwestern China, because of pollution concerns. The halt has been hailed as a major victory by environmental activists against corporate and government power. |
 | Greenwashing the Olympics
by Daniel Nelson, CorpWatch Blog
July 4th, 2012
Rio Tinto has been named as early front-runner for the Greenwash Gold award for the worst Olympic sponsor, with BP in second place and Dow Chemical third. The three corporations have paid millions to stick their names all over Olympic promotional material and activities. |
 | Monsanto Faces $7.5 Billion Payout to Brazilian Farmers
by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch Blog
June 28th, 2012
Monsanto, the largest seed corporation in the world, has long dealt out severe legal sanctions against farmers it suspects of "pirating" its seed. Now farmers in Brazil have turned the tables on the company which may have to pay out $7.5 billion. |
 | Spies in Africa’s Skies: New Contractors for the Pentagon
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
June 18th, 2012
Sierra Nevada Corporation from Sparks, Nevada, and R-4, Inc. from Eatontown, New Jersey - are two companies at the forefront of the covert war in Africa, where they operate small Swiss aircraft to spy on behalf of the U.S. Special Operations Command. |
 | Forgiving Siemens: Unraveling a Tangled Tale of German Corruption in Greece
by Lena Mavraka and Vasilis Papatheodorou, Special to CorpWatch
June 11th, 2012
To understand the pervasive corruption in Greek politics, it is necessary to examine the company that has probably paid the biggest bribes to both major parties: Siemens from Munich, Germany, a company with contracts in practically every ministry from culture to telecommunications. |
 | Coffee Colonialism: Olam Plantation Displaces Lao Farmers
by Beaumont Smith, Special to CorpWatch
June 4th, 2012
Olam International, a Singapore based multinational, is growing coffee for export in Paksong, southern Laos. The land for the plantation was seized by Sonesay Siphandone, the district governor, from the upland Nha Huen/Yahern community who have been left without food to eat. |
 | Faking Happiness: Activists Strike Back at Vedanta Ad Campaign
by Freny Manecksha, CorpWatch Blog
May 30th, 2012
Vedanta Resources, a UK based mining and metals company with numerous projects in India, is attempting to claim to be social responsible via a huge advertising campaign. However activists have struck back by effectively using social media tools to counter Vedanta's claims. |
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