 |
| U.S.: Clawbacks Without Claws
by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times
September 10th, 2011
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 encouraged the Securities and Exchange Commission to fine corporate executives if they certified financial results that turned out to be bogus. The record suggests a bark decidedly worse than its bite. The SEC has filed cases against 31 executives at only 20 companies so far and recovered a total of $12.2 million from nine former executives to date. |
| LIBERIA: Hunting for Liberia’s Missing Millions
by Doreen Carvjal, New York Times
May 30th, 2010
How much money did Charles G. Taylor, the deposed president of Liberia, siphon out of his war-shattered country, and where is it? Investigators are developing a new strategy involving filing civil damage claims against companies, governments and international banks that they contend aided Mr. Taylor in illegal transactions. |
| US: Oil Hits Home, Spreading Arc of Frustration
by Campbell Robertson, Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder, New York Times
May 24th, 2010
More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. The disaster underscores the enduring laxity of federal regulation of offshore operations and has shown the government to be almost wholly at the mercy of BP and of Transocean, the company leasing the rig. |
| US/AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN: U.S. Is Still Using Private Spy Ring, Despite Doubts
by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times
May 15th, 2010
Top military officials continue to rely on a secret network of private spies set up by Michael D. Furlong, despite concerns about the legality of the operation. A New York Times review found Mr. Furlong’s operatives still providing information, with contractors still being paid under a $22 million contract, managed by Lockheed Martin and supervised by a Pentagon office. |
| US: U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits
by Ian Urbina, New York Times
May 13th, 2010
The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. |
| US: BP Is Criticized Over Oil Spill, but U.S. Missed Chances to Act
by Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton, New York Times
April 30th, 2010
The Obama administration began Friday to publicly chastise BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials initially seemed to underestimate the threat of a leak, just as BP did last year when it told the government such an event was highly unlikely. |
| US: Oil Spill’s Blow to BP’s Image May Eclipse Costs
by Clifford Krauss , New York Times
April 29th, 2010
BP says that the offshore drilling accident that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico could cost the company several hundred million dollars. Nobody really knows whether the oil giant is being too conservative about the cost for the April 20 accident, which some experts say could end up as the biggest oil spill in history. |
| US: Financial Debate Renews Scrutiny on Banks’ Size
by Sewall Chan, New York Times
April 20th, 2010
One question has vexed the Obama administration and Congress since the start of the financial crisis: how to prevent big bank bailouts. In the last year and a half, the largest financial institutions have only grown bigger, mainly as a result of government-brokered mergers. They now enjoy borrowing at significantly lower rates than their smaller competitors, a result of the bond markets’ implicit assumption that the giant banks are “too big to fail.” |
| US: Courts Take On Campaign Finance Decision
by Adam Liptak, New York Times
March 26th, 2010
Two federal courts here issued decisions on Friday addressing the impact of Citizens United, January’s big Supreme Court campaign finance ruling, on a new issue — whether the government may constitutionally restrict the size of contributions to groups that spend money to support political candidates. |
| AFGHANISTAN/US: Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants
by DEXTER FILKINS and MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times
March 15th, 2010
Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States. The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. |
| US: Obama's Budget Calls for Billions in New Spending for Drones
by Jason Leopold, Truthout
February 2nd, 2010
Shares of major US defense contractors including Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman rose upon the unveiling of President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 spending plan for the Pentagon, part of the president's overall $3.8 trillion budget proposal. More than $2 billion will be used to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, blamed for a significant rise in civilian casualties in the "war on terror." |
| US: Idea of company-as-person originated in late 19th century
by Martha C. White, Washington Post
January 31st, 2010
The Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision in Citizens United v FEC rolled back long-standing restrictions on corporate campaign finance donations. At the crux of the decision was a determination that corporations have a right to free speech. The court ruled that limiting the amount that companies can spend promoting their favored candidates is tantamount to denying First Amendment rights. |
| US/KUWAIT: Settlement possible in military contractor fraud case
by Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
January 29th, 2010
Kuwaiti firm Agility (formerly Public Warehousing) indicted here for overcharging the Army on an $8.5 billion contract is negotiating a possible settlement with the Justice Department. On Nov. 9, a federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted the firm on charges it gouged the U.S. government by overcharging on its contract to supply food to American troops in Iraq. |
| UK: U.K. to Crack Down on Tax Evasion in Developing Countries
by Laurence Norman, Wall Street Journal
January 26th, 2010
The U.K. government will on Wednesday set out proposals to broaden the crackdown on tax evasion to benefit developing countries, setting a year-end deadline for a U.K.-led multilateral tax-information-sharing accord with emerging nations. That could eventually open the way for multination tax-information accords, which would include former tax havens, developed and developing nations. |
| US: Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit
by Adam Liptak, New York Times
January 21st, 2010
Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. |
| US: Banks Set for Record Pay
by STEPHEN GROCER, Wall Street Journal
January 14th, 2010
Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture. |
| US/IRAQ: U.S. Companies Join Race on Iraqi Oil Bonanza
by TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times
January 13th, 2010
American companies have been arriving in Iraq to pursue an expected multibillion-dollar bonanza of projects to revive the country’s petroleum industry. But there are questions about the Iraqi government’s capacity to police the companies. “These are for-profit concerns and they are trying to make as much money as they can,” said Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch. |
| NIGERIA: Ex-militant leader heads SPDC’s patrol team
by Chris Ejim, Nigerian Compass
January 8th, 2010
Authorities of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have unveiled a new security strategy for securing oil pipelines and platforms within the Niger Delta region. Shell has appointed former MEND militant commander, Eris Paul, and his company, Eristex Pipeline Patrol, to secure oil facilities in the Southern Ijaw area of the Delta. |
| EUROPE: Europe’s Vast Farm Subsidies Face Challenges
by STEPHEN CASTLE and DOREEN CARVAJAL, New York Times
December 29th, 2009
The last time the European Union decided the future of its 50 billion euro agricultural aid program, in 2005, the deal was cut behind closed doors in a luxury suite at the five-star Conrad Brussels hotel. Now, 2013 is closer at hand and a new round of maneuvering has begun to reshape the richest system of agricultural handouts in the world. |
| JORDAN: For AIG’s Man in Jordan, War Becomes a Business Opportunity
by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica
December 17th, 2009
For Emad Hatabah, the war in Iraq became a business opportunity. As AIG's chief representative in Jordan, he was responsible for coordinating the care for hundreds of Iraqis who had been injured while working under contract for U.S. troops. He fulfilled his functions by sending business to himself, his friends and business associates, according to interviews and records. |
| US: DynCorp Fires Executive Counsel
by August Cole, Wall Street Journal
November 28th, 2009
DynCorp International Inc. said it has terminated one of its top lawyers, a move that comes on the heels of the government contractor's disclosure that some of its subcontractors may have broken U.S. law in trying to speed up getting licenses and visas overseas. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Paying Off the Warlords,
Anatomy of an Afghan Culture of Corruption
by Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com
November 17th, 2009
Among the dozens of businesses with lucrative Afghan and U.S. taxpayer-financed reconstruction deals are two extremely well connected companies -- Ghazanfar and Zahid Walid -- that helped to swell the election coffers of President Hamid Karzai as well as the family business of his running mate, the country's new vice president, warlord Mohammed Qasim Fahim. |
| US/ECUADOR: New nonprofit uses Web to pressure Chevron
by David A. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
November 16th, 2009
Retired retail executive Richard Goldman was astonished when he heard about the $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador. SO he has created a nonprofit group, Ethos Alliance, that will use social-networking tools to spread word of the case and put pressure on Chevron. |
| BRAZIL: Giants in Cattle Industry Agree to Help Fight Deforestation
by Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times
October 7th, 2009
Environmental groups hailed a decision this week by four of the world’s largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest. Brazil has the world’s largest cattle herd and is the world’s largest beef exporter. It is also the fourth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. |
| US: The Rights of Corporations (Op-Ed)
New York Times
September 22nd, 2009
The question at the heart of one of the biggest Supreme Court cases this year is simple: What constitutional rights should corporations have? The legal doctrine underlying this debate is known as “corporate personhood.” |
| ANGOLA: The dark side of doing business
by Rob Rose, Times South Africa
September 17th, 2009
As Angolan leader Jose Eduardo Dos Santos wooed President Jacob Zuma this week, some South African companies are furious at having been fleeced out of cash by doing business with the oil-rich country |
| AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractor
CNN.com
September 3rd, 2009
This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel." |
| US: So You Squandered Billions --- Take Another Whack At It
by Steven Perlstein, Washington Post
September 2nd, 2009
During the heyday of the credit bubble, they were the financiers who earned huge bonuses for creating, trading and investing other people's money in those complex securities that resulted in trillions of dollars in losses and brought global financial markets to their knees. Now they're out there again hustling for investors and hoping to make another score buying and trading the same securities. |
| US: New Hire Highlights Altegrity's Growing Ambition
by Thomas Heath, Washington Post
August 17th, 2009
For more than 12 years, Falls Church-based USIS quietly scrutinized the backgrounds of individuals who needed security clearance to work in the U.S. government or in the private sector. Now re-named Altegrity, the company has ambitions of securing government contracts for much more than investigation and data-collection. |
| SOUTH AMERICA: Plundering the Amazon
by Michael Smith and Adriana Brasileiro, Bloomberg.com
August 16th, 2009
Alcoa and Cargill have bypassed laws designed to prevent destruction of the world’s largest rain forest, Brazilian prosecutors say. The damage wrought by scores of companies is robbing the earth of its best shield against global warming. |
| US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contract
by V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post
August 12th, 2009
A Defense Department auditor, appearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, testified Tuesday that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait. |
| FRANCE: In French Inquiry, a Glimpse at Corporate Spying
by DAVID JOLLY, New York Times
August 1st, 2009
A corporate espionage case unfolding in France involves some of the biggest French companies, including Électricité de France, the world’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, and Vivendi, the media and telecommunications conglomerate. The story has the elements of a corporate thriller: a cast of characters that includes former French spies and military men, an American cycling champion, Greenpeace activists and a dogged judge. |
| US: House votes to rein in ‘excessive pay’ for company execs
by Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor
July 31st, 2009
On Friday the U.S. House of Representativs passed a high-visibility bill to give shareholders and federal regulators a stronger hand in curbing excessive or risky executive compensation. Industry groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed the bill as an overreach into private business decisions. |
| US: Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses Amid Wall St. Crisis
by Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times
July 30th, 2009
Nine of the financial firms that were recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the New York attorney general. The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid. |
| US: Cuomo Says Schwab Faces Fraud Suit
by Liz Rappaport, Wall Street Journal
July 20th, 2009
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has warned Charles Schwab & Co. that his office plans to sue the firm for civil fraud over its marketing and sales of auction-rate securities to clients. Emails and testimony cited in the letter show Schwab's brokers had little idea of what they were selling and later failed to tell clients that the market was collapsing. |
| UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giant
by Danny Fortson, Sunday Times (UK)
July 19th, 2009
In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it. |
| UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giant
by Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times (UK)
July 19th, 2009
In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it. |
| US: Industry Takes Aim at Plan to Create Financial Protection Agency
by Brady Dennis, Washington Post
July 7th, 2009
Business and trade-group lobbyists are beating a path for the first major battle over the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Recent discussions have involved the American Bankers Association, National Auto Dealers Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Bankers Association and other lobbyists. |
| US: Madoff Is Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Scheme
by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times
June 29th, 2009
A criminal saga that began in December with a string of superlatives — the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history — ended the same way on Monday as Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum for his crimes. |
| AFRICA: Blood diamond scheme 'is failing'
BBC News
June 24th, 2009
Officials are meeting to review the Kimberley Process, amid criticism that the scheme, set up to certify the origin of diamonds to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they are not financing war and human rights abuses, is failing. The Kimberley Process emerged from global outrage over conflicts in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, largely funded by the plundering of diamond resources. |
| IRAQ: Big Oil Ready for Big Gamble in Iraq
by Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal
June 24th, 2009
Next week, Iraqi officials will auction off oil contracts to foreign companies for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry three decades ago. Some 120 companies expressed interest in bidding for the contracts, and thirty-five companies qualified. They include Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Italy's Eni SpA, Russia's Lukoil and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec. |
| US: Madoff Suits Add Details About Fraud
by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times
June 22nd, 2009
Three lawsuits filed on Monday provided new details about what regulators say went on inside Bernard L. Madoff’s long-running Ponzi scheme, including information about who might have helped perpetuate the fraud for so long. |
| US: Hedge Funds Boost Profile in Lobbying
by Susan Pulliam and Tom McGinty, Wall Street Journal
June 22nd, 2009
Many hedge funds were relieved when the Obama administration's financial-overhaul plan included no big surprises to the lucrative, secretive industry. In 2008, major hedge funds and their trade groups spent $6.1 million lobbying Washington, up from $4.2 million in 2007 and nearly seven times the $897,000 average from 2003 to 2006. |
| IRAN: Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology
by Christopher Rhoads and Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal
June 22nd, 2009
The Iranian regime has developed one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet. The Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection. The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company. |
| CHINA: China Disables Some Google Functions
by Edward Wong, New York Times
June 19th, 2009
After meeting with managers of the Chinese operations of Google on Thursday to warn them, the Chinese government disabled some search functions on the Chinese-language Web site of Google on Friday. Officials alleged the site was linking too often to pornographic and vulgar content. |
| AFRICA: Battle to Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbs
by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times
June 9th, 2009
The fight against corruption in Africa is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. The search is on for more effective ways to tackle corruption, including intensified legal efforts to prosecute multinational corporations that pay the bribes and reclaim loot that African political elites have stashed abroad. |
| NIGERIA: Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case
by Jad Mouawad, New York Times
June 8th, 2009
Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, a striking sum given it has denied any wrongdoing. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shell’s most prominent critic at the time in Nigeria, was hanged in 1995 by that country’s military regime after protesting Shell's environmental practices in the oil-rich delta, especially in his native Ogoni region. |
| US: Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for U.S. Government
by CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOHN MARKOFF, New York Times
May 30th, 2009
The Obama administration’s push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies. |
| US: Chevron annual meeting heats up over Ecuador suit
by Jordan Robertson, Washington Post
May 27th, 2009
In a combative and sometimes colorful annual meeting, Chevron's CEO and chairman exchanged barbs with activists over pollution in the Amazon rain forest and the company's human rights record. The nation's second-largest oil company is awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador that could come with a $27 billion price tag. |
| FRANCE/UAE: Gulf base shows shift in France’s focus
by Ben Hall and Andrew England, Financial Times
May 25th, 2009
France's new naval base in Abu Dhabi, its first overseas military base in 50 years, has sparked a round of lobbying on behalf of lucrative business for French companies including Dassault, the military aircraft maker, and a consortium of Total, GdF-Suez and Areva, which is bidding to build two nuclear power stations in the UAE. Dassault is hoping to sell as many as 60 of its Rafale fighters to the UAE. |
| WORLD: When Chevron Hires Ex-Reporter to Investigate Pollution, Chevron Looks Good
by Brian Stelter, New York Times
May 10th, 2009
When Chevron learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador, it hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view. An Ecuadorean judge is expected to rule soon on whether Chevron owes up to $27 billion in damages. |
| NIGERIA: A Writer’s Violent End, and His Activist Legacy
by Patricia Cohen, New York Times
May 4th, 2009
A new novel, "Eclipse," by Richard North Patterson, is based on the case of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed in November 1995 by the government of General Sani Abacha. The circumstances, along with related incidents of brutal attacks, are getting another hearing. This month the Wiwa family’s lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell over its role in those events goes to trial in federal court in Manhattan. |
| US: N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide Inquiry
by Danny Hakim, New York Times
April 13th, 2009
New York State prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest and most politically connected private equity firms, made millions of dollars in improper payments to intermediaries in exchange for investments from New York’s state pension fund. |
| US: Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obama’s Green Lead
by Jad Mouawad, New York Times
April 7th, 2009
The Obama administration seeks the most ambitious transformation of energy policy in a generation. But Big Oil is not on board. Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power, and focus its alternative energy efforts on biofuels. BP, a company that has spent nine years saying it was moving “beyond petroleum,” has been getting back to petroleum since 2007, paring back its renewable program. The list goes on. |
| US: Contracting Boom Could Fizzle Out
by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post
April 7th, 2009
The surge in the U.S. military contracting workforce would ebb under Defense Secretary Gates's budget proposal as the Pentagon moves to replace private workers with full-time civil servants. The move could affect companies such as CACI and SAIC. "We are right-sizing the defense acquisition workforce so we can improve our contract oversight and get a better deal for the taxpayers," said the Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy. |
| IRAQ: Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobs
by Rod Nordland, New York Times
April 3rd, 2009
Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq, but by next month many of its private security guards will be back on the job here. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s new contract. |
| US: Pentagon Weighs Cuts and Revisions of Weapons
by Christopher Drew, New York Times
April 3rd, 2009
U.S. defense executives and consultants are worried about the sweeping changes in military programs that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce on Monday. Weapons systems like missile defense are likely to endure deep cuts. |
| CHINA: Banks Face Big Losses From Bets on Chinese Realty
by David Barboza , New York Times
April 3rd, 2009
Evergrande Real Estate Group, now mired in debt, has become a symbol of China’s go-go era of investing, when international bankers, private equity deal makers and hedge fund managers from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and others rushed here hoping to cash in on the world’s biggest building boom. |
| US: Banks Get New Leeway in Valuing Their Assets
by Floyd Norris, New York Times
April 2nd, 2009
A once-obscure accounting rule was changed Thursday to give banks more discretion in reporting the value of mortgage securities. Apparently under political pressure, the five-member Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a controversial change that makes it possible for banks to keep some declines in asset values off their income statements. |
| UGANDA/IRAQ: Why 10,000 Ugandans are eagerly serving in Iraq
by Max Delany, Christian Science Monitor
March 6th, 2009
Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, 10,000 Ugandans risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms in Iraq for as little as $600 per month. Many are looking to go to Afghanistan as the Obama administration increases contracts there. |
| CANADA: The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom
by Robert Kunzig, National Geographic
March 1st, 2009
Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions.
Syncrude and Suncor are two of the largest producers of bitumen; Canada is now the largest importer of oil to the United States, with tar sands exploitation slated to increase rapidly over the next five years. |
| CHINA: Morgan Stanley’s Chinese Land Scandal
by David Barboza , New York Times
March 1st, 2009
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Morgan Stanley said it had fired an executive in its China real estate division after uncovering evidence that he might have violated the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American business people from bribing foreign officials. |
| US: 'Card check' ballots to determine union representation
by Erin Rosa, Colorado Independent
February 24th, 2009
Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was in Denver on Monday to decry H.R. 800, federal legislation that would give workers greater rights to unionize. Spencer spoke at the offices of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry and warned of the “most radical rewrite of labor law in 70 years.” |
| US: The Looming Crisis at the Pentagon
by Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.com
February 2nd, 2009
Like much of the rest of the world, Americans know that the U.S. automotive industry is in the grips of what may be a fatal decline. A similar crisis exists when it comes to the military-industrial complex. That crisis has its roots in the corrupt and deceitful practices that have long characterized the high command of the Armed Forces, civilian executives of the armaments industries, and Congressional opportunists and pay-to-play criminals. |
| US: Deputy SecDef could earn $500K lobbying Pentagon
by Lara Jakes, Washington Post
January 27th, 2009
William J. Lynn, the man nominated to be the Pentagon's second-in-command could make a half-million dollars next month with vested stock he earned as a lobbyist for military contractor Raytheon. This is despite an Obama administration order against "revolving door" lobbyists who become public officials. |
| US: Bank of America Board Under Gun From Critics
by Louise Story and Julie Creswell, New York Times
January 27th, 2009
As Bank of America's board meets next week, shareholders have turned up the pressure on CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. Their scrutiny has also turned an unusual spotlight on the oversight role played by the bank's board members. |
| SWITZERLAND: Davos Scales Back Glitz
by Associated Press, New York Times
January 25th, 2009
The economic crisis that emerged out the collapse of securities based on shaky U.S. mortgages poses challenges for the Davos World Economic Forum, an arena that has championed market-driven approaches. |
| US: Rubin Leaving Citigroup; Smith Barney for Sale
by Eric Dash and Louise Story, New York Times
January 9th, 2009
Robert Rubin will resign from the beleaguered Citigroup. As Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made Citigroup's creation possible. He also helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products during that time. |
| US: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide
by MONICA DAVEY, New York Times
December 7th, 2008
In a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs this year is boiling over, workers laid off from Republic Windows and Doors, said they would not leave, after company officials announced that the factory was closing. The workers were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law in lay-offs. |
| CANADA/IRAQ: Drill, Garner, Drill
by Anthony Fenton, Mother Jones
November 24th, 2008
In the history of the Iraq War, one name is perhaps synonymous with the collapse of the Bush administration's hopes for a post-Saddam world: Retired Lt. General Jay M. Garner, who served as the first post-war administrator. This year, he and a small group of former US military leaders, officials, and lobbyists have quietly used their Kurdistan connections to help Canadian companies access some of the region's richest oil fields. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Apartheid lawsuit back in US court
SABC News
September 25th, 2008
After six years of battling, the plaintiffs must prove whether certain multinationals enabled the apartheid government to commit acts of gross human rights violations. Among the 21 defendants are oil, vehicle and financial companies which continue to operate in South Africa -- the likes of BP, Shell, Chevron Texaco, Barclays, Daimler Chrysler and Rio Tinto. They stand accused of supporting the former regime with arms and ammunition, financing, fuel, transportation and military technology. |
| US: SEC Presses Hedge Funds
by Kara Scarnell, Wall Street Journal
September 25th, 2008
American International Group Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley, Washington Mutual Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are part of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into potential abuse in relation to the current financial markets meltdown. |
| US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billions
by John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal
September 23rd, 2008
About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks. |
| ISRAEL: U.S. approves $330 million in arms deals for Israel
by Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters
September 9th, 2008
The U.S. government on Tuesday said it had approved up to $330 million in three separate arms deals for Israel, and sources tracking a much bigger deal for 25 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets said that agreement could be approved later this month. |
| UK-Zimbabwe: BAE linked to Zimbabwean arms dealer
by Christopher Thompson and Michael Peel , Financial Times/UK
July 31st, 2008
According to documents seen by the Financial Times, BAE Systems has been linked to Zimbabwean arms trader John Bredenkamp. BAE reportedly paid at least £20m to Bredenkamp via offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands between 2003 and 2005. The payments raise fresh questions about bribery in BAE's dealings. |
| Iraq: U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals
by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times
June 30th, 2008
The Bush administration has disclosed that U.S. advisors in Iraq played a key role in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies. The no-bid contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies. |
| SWITZERLAND: Tax scandal leaves Swiss giant reeling
by Nick Mathiason, The Guardian (UK)
June 29th, 2008
Sending shockwaves through the Swiss financial industry, banking giant UBS is facing accusations from a former senior banker in US courts of massive fraud and corruption. UBS is alleged to have engaged in routine activities aimed at helping its high net worth clients evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, among other matters. |
| US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist
by Ed Pilkington, Guardian (UK)
June 23rd, 2008
On June 23, James Hansen, a leading world climate scientist, called for the executives of major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy, to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature through actions like funding climate skeptics to undermine global consensus around combating climate change. |
| KATRINA: Audit Faults KBR's Repairs of Hurricane Damage
by Derek Kravitz, The Washington Post
June 18th, 2008
Efforts by defense contractor KBR to repair hurricane-damaged Navy facilities were deemed shoddy and substandard, and one technical adviser alleged that the federal government "certainly paid twice" for many KBR projects because of "design and workmanship deficiencies," the Pentagon's inspector general reported in an audit released yesterday. |
| US: 30 Former Officials Became Corporate Monitors
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and KITTY BENNETT, The New York Times
May 23rd, 2008
The Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution, according to government data released Thursday by Congress. |
| RUSSIA: As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russia
by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times
May 11th, 2008
Gazprom and the Russian government have long had a close relationship, but the revolving door between them is spinning especially fast this year. But Gazprom also epitomizes the risks of state capitalism: waste and inefficiency. |
| US: In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials
by ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times
April 9th, 2008
In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years. |
| US: House panel questions Bear rescue plan
by James Politi , The Financial Times
April 8th, 2008
The rescue of Bear Stearns faced further scrutiny in Congress on Tuesday as a powerful Democratic lawmaker demanded more information on the selection of BlackRock as investment manager for $30bn in the bank’s mortgage assets. |
| EUROPE: In Europe, widening probe targets tax haven
by Mark Rice Oxley and Jeffrey White, Christian Science Monitor
March 25th, 2008
Nearly two decades after taking the helm of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel surrendered to police amid suspicion that he evaded €1 million in taxes. The next day, he resigned, becoming the first to fall in a massive probe that has broadened to nine other countries. |
| US: Pesticide maker owned by political donor
by Matthew Yi, San Francisco Chronicle
March 8th, 2008
The company that makes one of the pesticides state officials are
considering spraying over the Bay Area to fight the light brown apple moth is owned by a wealthy California agribusinessman who has been a generous contributor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials.
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| CAYMAN ISLANDS: Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore
by Farah Stockman, The Boston Globe
March 6th, 2008
Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. |
| US: In Shift, Ashcroft to Testify on Oversight Deal
by Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post
February 26th, 2008
Former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft agreed last night to appear at a House hearing to discuss his lucrative arrangement overseeing a medical equipment company, averting a showdown with committee members who had planned to meet today to authorize a subpoena. |
| US: Inside the world of war profiteers
by David Jackson and Jason Grotto|Tribune reporters, Chicago Tribune
February 21st, 2008
Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand. |
| US: 12 Years for Contractor in Bribery Case
by ELLIOT SPAGAT, AP
February 20th, 2008
A defense contractor was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday for bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with cash, trips, the services of prostitutes and other gifts in exchange for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work. |
| US: Holes in the Wall
by Melissa del Bosque, The Texas Observer
February 18th, 2008
As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched. |
| UK: BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince
by David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian (UK)
February 15th, 2008
Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE. |
| US: Bush Presses House to Approve Bill on Surveillance
by ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times
February 13th, 2008
The president’s remarks came the morning after the Senate handed the White House a major victory by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants. |
| US: An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor
by JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., The New York Times
January 31st, 2008
Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. |
| US: Giuliani Had Ties to Company Trying to Sell Border Technology
by RUSS BUETTNER, New York Times
January 18th, 2008
On the presidential campaign trail, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani often promotes the installation of electronic monitoring devices at the border to stem illegal immigration, without mentioning that until a few months ago, he was partner in a company trying to market such technology. |
| US: Corporate Fraud Lawsuits Restricted
by Robert Barnes and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post
January 16th, 2008
The Supreme Court yesterday strictly limited the ability of investors who lost money through corporate fraud to sue other businesses that may have helped facilitate the crime, a decision that could doom stockholder efforts to recover billions of dollars lost in Enron and other high-profile cases. |
| US: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry
by Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Scott Shane, New York Times
December 16th, 2007
The Bush administration is waging a high-profile campaign to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program. At stake is the federal government's partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime. |
| UK: Payload: Taking Aim at Corporate Bribery
by Nelson D. Schwarts and Lowell Bergman, New York Times
November 25th, 2007
Controversial financial ties between British military contracting giant, BAE Systems, and Downing Street in Saudi Arabia attract attention during King Abdullah's visit to Buckingham Palace. |
| US: Law firm seeks nearly $700 mil for Enron pacts
by Martha Graybow, Reuters
November 21st, 2007
The law firm that helped win $7.2 billion in settlements for Enron investors is seeking nearly $700 million in legal fees for itself and other attorneys who handled the case, according to court documents.
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| EU: Court hits at Brussels secrecy
by Andy Bounds, Financial Times
November 8th, 2007
The European Union's secretive decision-making processes were condemned on Thursday in a legal judgment that should lead to more light being shed on how thousands of regulations affecting businesses are hatched. |
| UK: From $1 firm, Lord Ashcroft nets £132m
by Simon Bowers, Guardian (UK)
October 9th, 2007
The UK's Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative party deputy chairman and major donor, has agreed to sell his loss-making US janitorial business in a deal that will bring him a £132m windfall. |
| BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Grows
by Michael Diebert, IPS
October 4th, 2007
The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders. |
| US: Billions over Baghdad; The Spoils of War
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Vanity Fair
October 1st, 2007
Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency--much of it belonging to the Iraqi people--was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. |
| IRAQ: Big oil’s waiting game over Iraq’s reserves
by Ed Crooks and Sheila McNulty, Financial Times
September 19th, 2007
Oil companies face a dilemma in Iraq over whether to wait for a new oil law which will give them a legal framework in which to operate or to sign agreements now with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the risk of sullying relations with Baghdad and the rest of the country. |
| US: '60s Figure Says He Financed Donor Hsu
by Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Brody Mullins, Wall Street Journal
September 12th, 2007
A company controlled by Democratic Party donor Norman Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock festival in 1969. That money, Mr. Rosenman told investors this week, is missing. |
| EU: EU lobbyists face tougher regulation
by Andrew Bounds and Marine Formentini, Financial Times
August 16th, 2007
Europe seems set for US-style controls on lobbying after the biggest public affairs companies in Brussels ruled out voluntary regulation because they would have to divulge their clients and fees. |
| US: Navajos and Environmentalists Split on Power Plant
by Felicity Barringer, The New York Times
July 27th, 2007
A plan to build a new, large coal-fired power plant has proved divisive in the Navajo community in Nevada, with some arguing that it will bring the community millions, while others saying it is a lethal "energy monster" and harbinger of environmental destruction. |
| US: Savings and Issues in Candidates’ Use of Private Jets
by Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne, The New York Times
July 26th, 2007
Political fortunes and high costs have forced some presidential candidates to switch from using chartered private jets to those of corporations, including John McCain, who had previously sponsored a bill limiting use of corporate jets by candidates. |
| ITALY: Devil's Advocate
by Daniel Fisher, Forbes
July 24th, 2007
Italian oil giant Eni has a long history of cutting deals with anyone, and of accusations of corruption and bribery. Now that its future hangs on Russia and its notorious reputation in the energy market, has Eni finally met its match? |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Globalization Brings South Africa Gains -- and Pains
by David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal
June 21st, 2007
Globalization has been both a boon and a bane for South Africa; it has helped along the country's integration into the global economy and strengthened its regional political position, but it has also contributed to the widening gap between a wealthy minority and the poor majority, something that is creating a whole new generation of disenfranchised citizens. |
| CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report
by Dino Mahtani, Financial Times
May 8th, 2007
The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president |
| CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report
by Dino Mahtani, Financial Times
May 8th, 2007
The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president. |
| UK: Rowntree dumps its Reed shares
by Katherine Griffiths, Telegraph
February 13th, 2007
Two investors in Reed Elsevier have sold their shares as a protest that the publishing giant runs arms fairs which have included the sale of torture equipment. |
| US: US charges oil-for-food chief
by Brooke Masters and Mark Turner, Financial Times
January 16th, 2007
Benon Sevan, the administrator who was in charge of overseeing the United Nation's oil-for-food programme for Iraq, was indicted on Tuesday on federal charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as part of a growing attempt by prosecutors to hold UN employees accountable to US laws. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: Oil, Cash and Corruption
by Ron Stodghill, The New York Times
November 5th, 2006
In February, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan is scheduled to go to trial in the largest foreign bribery case brought against an American citizen. It involves a labyrinthine trail of international financial transfers, suspected money laundering and a dizzying array of domestic and overseas shell corporations. The criminal case names Mr. Nazarbayev as an unindicted co-conspirator. |
| EU: Chemicals: A tale of fear and lobbying
by Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald Tribune
October 27th, 2006
Three years ago, Margot Wallstrom, who was then the European Union's environment commissioner, revealed to a startled Brussels press corps that a blood test had found the presence of 28 artificial chemicals in her body, including DDT, a pesticide banned from European farms since 1983, when it was found to harm wildlife and attack the nervous system. |
| EU: Lobbying, European style
by Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald Tribune
October 27th, 2006
If the European Union's eight-year effort to tighten laws governing chemicals testing has spawned one of the biggest and most costly industry lobbying campaigns that Brussels has ever seen, it has also given new impetus to efforts to regulate how lobbying is done at the European Commission. |
| US: Rep. Ney Admits Selling Influence
by James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt, Washington Post
September 16th, 2006
Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) agreed yesterday to plead guilty to corruption charges after admitting to performing a variety of official acts for lobbyists in exchange for campaign contributions, expensive meals, luxury travel, sports tickets and thousands of dollars in gambling chips. He is the first elected official to face prison time in the ongoing influence-peddling investigation of former GOP lobbying powerhouse Jack Abramoff. |
| US: Once an Enemy, Health Industry Warms to Clinton
by Raymond Hernandez and Robert Pear, The New York Times
July 12th, 2006
Some of the same interests that tried to derail Mrs. Clinton’s health care overhaul are providing support for her Senate re-election bid. The Health Insurance Association of America ran the famous “Harry and Louise” commercials mocking the Clinton health care plan as impenetrably complex. Some companies that were members of that group are now donating to Mrs. Clinton. |
| US: Lawmaker Criticized for PAC Fees Paid to Wife
by Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Washington Post
July 11th, 2006
In the past two years, campaign and political action committees controlled by Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) paid ever-larger commissions to his wife's one-person company and spent tens of thousands of dollars on gifts at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co. and a Ritz-Carlton day spa.
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| US: Lay's Death Complicates Efforts to Seize Assets
by Simon Romero, The New York Times
July 6th, 2006
In yet another bizarre twist to the Enron saga, the sudden death of Kenneth L. Lay on Wednesday may have spared his survivors financial ruin. Mr. Lay's death effectively voids the guilty verdict against him, temporarily thwarting the federal government's efforts to seize his remaining real estate and financial assets, legal experts say.
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| US: Jury Convicts HealthSouth Founder in Bribery Trial
by Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post
June 30th, 2006
An Alabama jury yesterday convicted HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard M. Scrushy -- acquitted last year of federal accounting-fraud charges -- of paying half a million dollars in bribes to former governor Don Siegelman in exchange for a seat on a state health-care board. |
| US: SEC Lawyer Dismissed for a Donor?
by Ari Berman, The Nation
June 28th, 2006
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating one of the nation's largest hedge funds, Pequot Capitol Management, for possible insider trading. Up until last summer, the inquiry was headed by SEC lawyer Gary Aguirre. His investigation proceeded smoothly, Aguirre claims, until he asked for testimony from former Pequot chairman and Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack, a top Bush donor. |
| US: Justices Reject Campaign Limits in Vermont Case
by Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times
June 27th, 2006
Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and on campaign spending by candidates are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a splintered 6-to-3 decision suggesting that efforts to limit the role of money in politics might face considerable resistance in the Roberts court. |
| US: In Las Vegas, They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck
by Michael J. Goodman and William C. Rempel, The Los Angeles Times
June 8th, 2006
When Judge Gene T. Porter last ran for reelection, a group of Las Vegas lawyers sponsored a fundraiser for him at Big Bear in California. Even by Las Vegas standards, it was brazen. Some of the sponsors had cases before him. One case was set for a crucial hearing in four days. |
| US: Taking Sides on 'Net Neutrality'
by Jim Puzzanghera, The Los Angeles Times
June 6th, 2006
Former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry is no stranger to well-aimed political attacks. After all, he held down the briefing room podium for Bill Clinton during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a task he compared to being a "human pinata." |
| US: Privately Funded Trips Add Up on Capitol Hill
by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post
June 6th, 2006
Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to date on the subject of congressional travel. |
| US: Playing Politics With Federal Contracts
OMB Watch
May 17th, 2006
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Alphonso Jackson suggested at a forum in Dallas that federal contracts would not be awarded to those who have political disagreements with President Bush. |
| US: Congressman's Condo Deal Is Examined
by JODI RUDOREN and ARON PILHOFER, The New York Times
May 17th, 2006
At the center of a federal inquiry into Representative Alan B. Mollohan, Democrat of West Virginia, is his real estate investment with a bankrupt distant cousin who touted his connections to one of Mr. Mollohan's nonprofit organizations to win work, including a federal contract in his district.
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| US: Big Corporate Tax Breaks Upheld
by David G. Savage, The Los Angeles Times
May 16th, 2006
The Supreme Court threw out a taxpayers' lawsuit Monday that challenged the widespread practice of states giving big tax breaks to lure manufacturers to build new plants within their borders. |
| US: Katherine Harris in Hot Water Over Defense Contractor
Associated Press
May 4th, 2006
A political strategist who left U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record)'s Senate campaign last month said Harris ignored her staff's recommendation to reject a defense contractor's $10 million appropriation request, now being challenged by a congressional watchdog group. |
| US: Red Lights on Capitol Hill
by Ken Sliverstein, Harpers
May 3rd, 2006
I reported last Thursday that Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Inc., a firm allegedly used by defense contractor Brent Wilkes to provide prostitutes to ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham, is headed by a man who has a long criminal rap sheet and is also a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was Mitchell Wade, another defense contractor who has acknowledged bribing Cunningham, and who is cooperating with investigators, who reportedly told prosecutors about Shirlington's relationship with Wilkes and the latter's alleged pimping scheme. (Wilkes's attorney denies the charge.) |
| US: Enron Prosecutor Questions Skilling's Story
by Vikas Bajaj and Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
April 17th, 2006
A prosecutor tried to poke holes in the testimony of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, today by boring in on stock sales he made in the months after he left the company and before the energy company declared bankruptcy. |
| US: The Enron Standard
by Lee Drutman, tompaine.com
April 13th, 2006
In a Houston courtroom this week, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling took the witness stand to plead his innocence, telling jurors that “My life is on the line.†|
| US: Unwitting Shoppers Recruited for Wal-Mart PR Fight
by Marilyn Geewax, Cox News Service
April 4th, 2006
Last December, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., created its own grassroots group, Working Families for Wal-Mart. It hired Edelman, a global public relations firm, to organize the group out of its Washington office and launch a nationwide campaign. |
| US: Proposals Call For Disclosure of Ties to Lobbyists
by Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post
March 27th, 2006
As long as there is no explicit quid pro quo, lawmakers can channel clients to lobbyists, who help secure home-district pet projects, or "earmarks," and in turn, those lobbyists can send part of their fees back in the form of campaign contributions. But in the wake of the corruption scandals of former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, congressional reformers want to shine a light on dealings that have even a whiff of impropriety.
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| US: Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil
by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times
March 27th, 2006
Last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful. |
| US: Former DeLay aide enriched by nonprofit
by R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post
March 25th, 2006
A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records. |
| US: Did a Group Financed by Exxon
Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace?
by Steve Stecklow, The Wall Street Journal
March 21st, 2006
Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes. What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests.
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| US: Fastow grilled about 'smoking gun' document
by Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
March 9th, 2006
A defense lawyer in the trial of former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling spent Thursday morning trying to undermine the testimony of the government's star witness and questioning the authenticity of a "smoking gun" document. |
| US: Skilling's Lawyer Portrays an Accuser as Out of Touch
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
February 16th, 2006
A lawyer for Jeffrey K. Skilling, a former Enron chief executive, tried Wednesday to portray the head of the company's broadband unit as an out-of-touch manager who was criticized for his free-spending ways and did not even know how many employees were working under him. |
| US: 10 Enron Players: Where They Landed After the Fall
by staff, The New York Times
January 29th, 2006
KENNETH L. LAY and his second in command, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were the public faces of Enron, painting a rosy picture of strong profits and healthy businesses. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees. |
| US: Big Test Looms for Prosecutors at Enron Trial
by Kurt Eichenwald, The New York Times
January 26th, 2006
"For the government, if they lose the Enron case, it will be seen as a symbolic failure of their rather significant campaign against white-collar crime," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It will be seen as some evidence that some cases are too complicated to be brought into the criminal justice process."
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| US: Taking Enron to Task
by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post
January 18th, 2006
Sean M. Berkowitz and a small group of government lawyers will be in the spotlight in the Jan. 30 trial of Enron's former leaders. The case is the capstone in the cleanup after an era of business misconduct that left investors billions of dollars poorer. The outcome could shape the public's -- and history's -- judgment of how effective it was. |
| US: Blunt, DeLay shared connections to lobbyist Abramoff
USA Today
January 11th, 2006
Roy Blunt, R-Mo., wrote at least three letters helpful to Abramoff clients while collecting money from them. He swapped donations between his and DeLay's political groups, ultimately enriching the Missouri political campaign of his son Matt.
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| US: Prosecutors Shift Focus on Enron
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
January 11th, 2006
Government lawyers who will try the case against Enron's former chief executives, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, have signaled that they intend to spend less time befuddling jurors with talk of Enron's accounting. |
| US: DeLay Tried, Failed to Aid Abramoff Client
by Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press
January 10th, 2006
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tried to pressure the Bush administration into shutting down an Indian-owned casino that lobbyist Jack Abramoff wanted closed — shortly after a tribal client of Abramoff's donated to a DeLay political action committee. |
| US: Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualty
by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post
January 10th, 2006
One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.
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| US: Fines in mining deaths cut back
by Thomas Frank, USA Today
January 10th, 2006
The nation's coal mines have been required to pay only a fraction of the federal fines imposed after deadly accidents since 1999, a USA TODAY analysis shows. |
| US: Call It the Deal of a Lifetime
by Landon Thomas, Jr., The New York Times
January 8th, 2006
It has been a wrenching professional and personal reversal for Michael Kopper, who three years ago became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges and cut a deal with the government. Mr. Kopper was also the first high-ranking Enron employee to publicly admit to lying and stealing - in his case, more than $16 million - from the company.
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| US: Lobbyist's Firm Escapes Fallout From a Scandal
by By JONATHAN D. GLATER and ANNE E. KORNBLUT, The New York Times
January 8th, 2006
Greenberg Traurig was a politically well-connected law firm long before Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist who pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, joined it about six years ago. |
| US: Lobbyist Pleads Guilty in Florida; Second Plea in 2 Days
by Abby Goodnough and Anne E. Kornblut, The New York Times
January 4th, 2006
A day after he pleaded guilty to three felony counts in Washington, Jack Abramoff, a once prominent Republican lobbyist, pleaded guilty today to two felony charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case stemming from his purchase of a casino boat line in 2000.
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| US: U.S. says Skilling mislead the SEC
CNN
January 4th, 2006
Prosecutors intend to argue that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling attempted to deceive the Securities and Exchange Commission in a deposition he gave soon after the company's bankruptcy about his reason for selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock, according to a motion filed in a Houston federal court Tuesday. |
| US: The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
by R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post
December 31st, 2005
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
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| US: Former Top Enron Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraud
by Simon Romero and Vikas Bajas, The New York Times
December 28th, 2005
The former chief accounting officer of Enron pleaded guilty today to a single felony charge of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, giving a significant lift to the government's case against the two leading figures in the scandal over Enron's collapse.
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| US: Donors underwrite DeLay's luxury lifestyle
by Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer, Associated Press
December 20th, 2005
As Tom DeLay became a king of campaign fundraising, he lived like one too. He visited cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants - all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire. |
| US: Shining Light on Corporate Political Gifts
by Floyd Norris, The New York Times
December 16th, 2005
Which politicians - and which political causes - are your companies financing? Will those contributions come back to haunt them as prosecutors go after lobbyists for expenditures that could be deemed contributions - or bribes? |
| US: Poll Shows Americans Distrust Corporations
by Claudia H. Deutsch, The New York Times
December 10th, 2005
Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets.
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| Britain: British Upset by Scale of Iraqi Ministry Corruption
The Guardian
August 23rd, 2005
British officials are seriously concerned about the level of corruption in the Iraqi defense ministry, after the embezzlement of vast amounts of money earmarked for the country's security forces.
Officials from the British Ministry of Defense had already warned US and Iraqi authorities against the squandering of money -- and have been proved right, on a catastrophic scale. |
| Ghana: Comparing "Hotel Kufuor" to other Presidential Scandals
by Katie Bell , Home Page Ghana
August 21st, 2005
COUNTS of massive corruption within governments weave their way through almost every nation. Yet, the accusations surrounding President Kufuor’s involvement in the ‘Hotel Scandal’ seems negligible and overhand when compared to past and ongoing corruption scandals hitting the headlines elsewhere. It seems a bit of underhand dealing comes with the job. The question arises however, of where does one draw the line? |
| US: The Big Tug of War Over Unocal
by Steve Lohr, New York Times
July 6th, 2005
As the lobbying heats up in Washington over Unocal, a midsize American oil company, the battle lines in the takeover contest are now drawn clearly, if oddly, by its suitors. |
| BRAZIL: Paving the Amazon
by Marcelo Ballve, AlterNet
March 5th, 2005
In the aftermath of the assassination of Dorothy Stang, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva is scrambling to appear green. But many fear that an unholy alliance between government and agribusiness will bring more forest destruction. |
| MEXICO: First Lady's Foundation Leaves Grey Areas
by Sara Silver, Financial Times
February 24th, 2005
Marta Sahagún de Fox, Mexico's first lady, has repeatedly denied using her philanthropic foundation (which has ties to Coca-Cola) to advance political ambitions. So it may be nothing more than coincidence that as the country moves towards elections next year, Vamos Mexico's media campaign has moved into high gear. |
| US: Of, By and For Big Business
by Robert Scheer, AlterNet
February 22nd, 2005
Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the Republicans who control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the coup de grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to Wall Street.
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| US: A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets
by Glen Justice, New York Times
February 19th, 2005
Taking its cues from the success of last year's Swift boat veterans' campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush's toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security. |
| US: Former JP Morgan Vice President Will Plead Guilty
by Jon Hurdle, Reuters
January 12th, 2005
Anthony Snell, a former vice president of the Wall Street firm, will on Thursday plead guilty to wire fraud offenses, after previously denying the charges, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. |
| US: War is Bad for Business
by Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy In Focus
December 31st, 2004
On top of the human and financial costs of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas, according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc. |
| EU: Corporate Lobbying Grows
by Stefania Bianchi, Inter Press Service
December 22nd, 2004
Groups say corporate lobby groups, which include industrial associations, political consultants and cross-industry groups, are gaining "far too much political influence" in the European Union (EU) decision-making process, and are calling for the European Commission, the EU executive, "to curb the excessive influence" of such groups. |
| US: Departing Lawmakers Cash in Years of Service for Big Bucks
by Matt Stearns, Knight Ridder
December 22nd, 2004
With the 108th Congress now passed into history, another Washington tradition is playing out this month as departing members of Congress, rather than returning home, trade their years of service for big paychecks from lobbying groups, investment banks and law firms. |
| US: Lobbyists Try to Kill Philidelphia Inexpensive Wireless Plan
by Marc Levy, Associated Press
November 24th, 2004
Philadelphia's plan to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a municipal service — the most ambitious yet by a major U.S. city — has collided with commercial interests including the local phone company, Verizon Communications Inc. |
| UK: British Companies Demand Relaxed Regulations
by David Hencke and Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK)
November 17th, 2004
Three of Britain's blue chip companies told the government they would boycott its export guarantee scheme unless tough new rules over bribery and corruption were relaxed. |
| US: Union Plans Four-Day Strike Against SBC
Associated Press
May 19th, 2004
The union representing 102,000 employees of SBC Communications Inc. said Wednesday it would stage a four-day strike starting Friday because of a deadlock in contract negotiations with the nation's second biggest local phone company. |
| US: Professors Back Kerry With Campaign Giving
by Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe
May 18th, 2004
Voting with their checkbooks, college professors are breaking overwhelmingly for Senator John F. Kerry over President Bush, with the Democratic challenger raising nearly three times as much in campaign contributions from college campuses. The fund-raising trend contrasts sharply with the 2000 presidential race, when Bush raised slightly more money from academia than Al Gore. |
| Iraq: Oil-Slick James Baker
by Greg Palast, AlterNet
April 28th, 2004
There's nothing in the Iraq Strategy about democracy or voting. But there's plenty of detail about creating a free-market Disneyland in Mesopotamia, with "all" state assets and that's just about everything in that nation to be sold off to corporate powers. The Bush team secret program ordered: "... asset sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, especially those in the oil and supporting industries." |
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