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| US: WesternGeco Agrees to $19.6 Million Fraud Fine
by Lynn J. Cook, The Houston Chronicle
June 16th, 2006
A Houston-based subsidiary of Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company, has agreed to pay $19.6 million in penalties for "knowingly submitting fraudulent visa applications" for foreign workers assigned to vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a statement from the U.S. Dept. of Justice. |
| US: Judge Grants Tyco Investors Class-Action Status
by Katharine Webster, Associated Press
June 14th, 2006
Former shareholders of Tyco International Ltd., whose former chief executive and chief financial officer were convicted of fraud, have been certified as a class to sue the company and its accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. |
| US: Options Scandal Growing
by Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
June 14th, 2006
Like betting on a horse race after its finish, some executives were guaranteed to be "in the money." That is how investor advocates and irate shareholders describe it as signs emerge daily about possible manipulation of the timing of stock-option grants to enrich top company executives. |
| UZBEKISTAN: Coca-Cola accused over Uzbek venture
by Edward Alden in Washington and Andrew Ward in Atlanta, Financial Times
June 13th, 2006
Coca-Cola has been hit with an arbitration claim seeking more than $100m in damages, alleging that the the world's largest soft drinks maker conspired with the government of Uzbekistan against a joint venture partner who fell out of favour with the country's authoritarian ruler, Islam Karimov. |
| US: N.H. Files Charge Against ING Groep Units
by Norma Love, Associated Press
June 9th, 2006
State securities officials have charged units of Dutch financial services giant ING Groep NV with taking undisclosed payments for promoting poor investments to state employees in their individual retirement plans. |
| 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: Three Restaurant Executives Will Admit Fraud Charges
by Floyd Norris, The New York Times
June 8th, 2006
Three former top officers of Buca Inc., an operator of Italian restaurants, have agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges in connection with a scheme to create false profits for Buca and allow executives to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for a wide range of expenses including the use of an Italian villa and visits to strip clubs. |
| US: Zomax ex-CEO convicted
by Thomas Lee, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
June 7th, 2006
Jim Anderson, who was chairman and CEO of Zomax when it was one of Minnesota's technology high-fliers in the late 1990s, was convicted of six counts of insider trading and five counts of engaging in illegal monetary transactions. |
| US: For Law Firm, Serial Plaintiff Had Golden Touch
by Julie Creswell and Jonathan D. Glater, The New York Times
June 5th, 2006
Mr. Vogel now says, according to a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, that he and members of his family were actually linchpins in a long-running arrangement that helped Milberg Weiss snare the lucrative lead counsel position in the Oxford Health and many other securities lawsuits, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees. |
| ITALY: Parmalat Fraud Hearing Opens
Associated Press
June 5th, 2006
Two and a half years after the $18-billion (U.S.) collapse of the Parmalat dairy company, a closed-door preliminary hearing opened Monday in Italy's main criminal proceedings to arise from Europe's largest corporate failure. |
| US: Indictment for Big Law Firm in Class Actions
by Julie Creswell, The New York Times
May 19th, 2006
The indictment is the first instance of a law firm with national reach facing criminal charges, and it could prove to be a fatal blow for the firm. The lawsuits cited in the indictment spanned two decades, occurring as recently as 2005, and generated some $216 million in legal fees for the firm.
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| 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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| KATRINA: Trailer deals go to Fluor ally
by James Varney, Times-Picayune
May 9th, 2006
Through a partnership with a smaller, minority-owned company, a sprawling multinational firm whose federal contract for travel trailers was up for rebidding has landed four new deals that could be worth $400 million, federal records show. |
| KATRINA: Complaints put FEMA trailer contracts on hold
by James Varney, New Orleans Times-Picayune
May 5th, 2006
A batch of lucrative federal travel trailer contracts along the Gulf Coast has been put on hold, and other contracts could be in jeopardy, after three companies that lost a rebidding process lodged formal protests with the Government Accountability Office, according to federal attorneys handling the complaints. |
| KATRINA: Complaints put FEMA trailer contracts on hold
Times-Picayune
May 5th, 2006
A batch of lucrative federal travel trailer contracts along the Gulf Coast has been put on hold, and other contracts could be in jeopardy, after three companies that lost a rebidding process lodged formal protests with the Government Accountability Office, according to federal attorneys handling the complaints. |
| 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.) |
| NETHERLANDS: The Dutch Try One of Their Own Over Links to Liberia
by Marlise Simons, The New York Times
May 3rd, 2006
Mr. van Kouwenhoven, 63, is also charged with war crimes. He is accused of supplying Mr. Taylor with militia fighters from his lumber companies. He is further charged with violating a United Nations embargo by smuggling weapons into Liberia. His trial, held under a new mix of national and international law, is drawing attention because it is the second time a Dutch court is prosecuting a Dutch businessman for being involved with human rights abuses on another continent.
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| IRAQ: Huge fraud exposed in Iraq contracts
by Ewen Macaskill, The Age
May 2nd, 2006
The report says: "Corruption is another form of insurgency in Iraq. This second insurgency can be defeated only through the development of democratic values and systems, especially the evolution of effective anti-corruption institutions in Iraq." |
| 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: America's Fake News Pandemic
by Timothy Karr, Media Citizen
April 7th, 2006
A report released yesterday by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press exposes corporate propagandas infiltration of local television news across the country. |
| KATRINA: FBI investigating Katrina contracts
by Karen Turni Bazile, New Orleans Times-Picayune
March 30th, 2006
The FBI has launched a multifaceted investigation into post-Hurricane Katrina spending in St. Bernard Parish, examining several public contracts including a $370 million debris pickup deal that parish officials granted without bids five days after the storm and gave again to the same firm later last year despite receiving lower offers, according to interviews with competitors and a parish official who have been questioned by federal agents. |
| 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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| INDONESIA: U.S. Aid to Corrupt TNI Risks More Rights Abuses
by Lisa Misol, The Jakarta Post
March 14th, 2006
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Jakarta follows the Bush Administration's controversial decision to reestablish full relations with the Indonesian Military (TNI). That move opens the door to renewed U.S. assistance, but pumping aid to an unreformed Indonesian military would serve only to encourage further rights abuses and undermine civilian governance. |
| 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: How Congress Benefits from Corporate Flights
by Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
March 7th, 2006
BellSouths McCloskey said providing transportation to federal officials gives us an opportunity to form relationships, to have a long stretch of time to explain issues that are technical and complicated. If it wasnt useful, we wouldnt do it. |
| AUSTRALIA: Lobbyists hired by AWB
by Richard Baker, Sydney Morning Herald
February 22nd, 2006
AWB enlisted the help of an influential Washington lobby firm headed by the former US defence secretary, William Cohen, to deal with a United Nations investigation into kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein. |
| 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. |
| WORLD: Hidden World Bank Whistleblower Report Made Public
Environmental News Service
February 10th, 2006
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) today released the Vaughn Report, commissioned by the World Bank as a guide to modernize the Bank's whistleblower protection policies. In the nine months since the Vaughn report was released on April 30, 2005, the World Bank has refused to publicly release the report, consult staff on Vaughns recommendations, or accept any offers from experts to help implement Vaughns analysis. |
| US: The Secret World of Stephen Cambone: Rumsfeld's Enforcer
by Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch
February 7th, 2006
A Republican staffer on the Senate foreign relations Committee tells CounterPunch the little-known Cambone, who like so many others on the Bush war team skillfully avoided military service, has quietly become one of the most powerful men in the Pentagon, rivaling even Paul Wolfowitz. |
| US: Top Enron Execs Knew of Changes
by Kristen Hays, Associated Press
February 7th, 2006
Enron Corp.'s former investor-relations chief grew tense Tuesday when challenged about his testimony that suggested former CEO Jeffrey Skilling participated in schemes to hike earnings estimates or minimize how much revenue stemmed from asset sales. |
| US: 4 Charged With Fraud in Insurance Inquiry
by Timothy O'Brien, The New York Times
February 2nd, 2006
Three former executives of the General Reinsurance Corporation and a former executive of American International Group have been indicted on charges that they fraudulently manipulated A.I.G.'s finances in order to mislead analysts and investors, the Justice Department said today. |
| 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. |
| INDONESIA: A Widow Who Won't Let Indonesia Forget
by Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, The New York Times
January 26th, 2006
In more than six hours of questioning by Indonesian police investigators, Patsy Spier described how attackers fired into the convoy carrying her, her husband and eight other Americans up a mountain road inside the concession of Freeport-McMoRan, an American mining company. Then she repeated her pitch for justice. |
| 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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| BOLIVIA: Bolivias Morales rejects US domination
by Hal Weitzman, The Financial Times
January 22nd, 2006
Evo Morales was sworn in on Sunday as Bolivias first indigenous president in a historic and emotional ceremony that set the tone for his new government, promising to move much the profits of Bolivia's natural resources to the people of Bolivia. |
| 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. |
| The Incredible Shrinking Company
by Christopher Moraff , Dollars and Sense
January 15th, 2006
Between 2002 and 2005, St. Augustine, Fla., exercise equipment vendor Raul Espinosa watched mystified as, one after another, a series of Air Force contracts he had placed bids on were given to other companies. Of the 14 bids that Espinosa has documented, his company, FitNet International, did not win one. To his surprise, Espinosa learned that some of the competitors he was losing contracts to had never even bothered to bid on them. |
| US: 600 People Monitoring Hurricane Contracts
by Charles R. Babcock, Washington Post
January 13th, 2006
The federal government has sent nearly 600 auditors and investigators to the Gulf Coast region to monitor $8.3 billion in contracts awarded to help victims of last year's hurricanes, according to year-end figures released by the Department of Homeland Security. |
| US: Defendants File a Flurry of Motions Challenging the KPMG Tax-Shelter Case
by Lynnley Browning, The New York Times
January 13th, 2006
A revised indictment, handed up last October, accused the 19 of "devising, marketing and implementing fraudulent tax shelters" as well as preparing "false and fraudulent" income tax returns containing the shelter losses, and with hiding all of this from the government. The case is the largest criminal tax case ever filed by the government.
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| US: Former Biogen Executive Settles Insider-Trading Charges
by John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal
January 12th, 2006
The former general counsel of Biogen Idec Inc. settled securities-fraud and insider-trading charges, agreeing to pay more than $3 million related to his sale of company shares on the day the biotech company learned that a patient taking its new multiple sclerosis drug was sick with a deadly infection.
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| 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: AmeriDebt Founder to Settle With the FTC
by Steven Manning, Associated Press
January 9th, 2006
The founder of the credit counseling firm AmeriDebt on Monday agreed to pay $35 million to settle suits filed by regulators and former customers over $172 million in allegedly hidden fees the company collected from financially strapped debtors.
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| 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: Appeals Court Upholds Martha Stewart's Conviction
Associated Press
January 6th, 2006
A federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction of celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart for lying to investigators about selling stock that plunged in price soon after her trade. Stewart completed her sentence in the case last summer but pursued the appeal anyway.
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| US: Jury Asks Judge for Aid in Cendant Trial
Associated Press
January 5th, 2006
Jurors considering the fate of former Cendant Corp. Chairman Walter Forbes asked a federal judge for assistance Thursday after being unable to reach a verdict during their 12th day of deliberations in his accounting fraud trial.
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| US: Corporate Crime: Execs Taking Fall While Corporations Go Free
by Niko Kyriakou, OneWorld.net
January 4th, 2006
With help from the U.S. Justice Department and state prosecutors, corporations are getting away with serious crimes by using their executives as cannon fodder, according to a new report, which questions whether this new legal strategy is hindering or enabling corporate malfeasance. |
| US: Fannie Mae Report May Be Delayed
by Dawn Kopecki, Dow Jones Newswires
January 4th, 2006
A report due this month detailing Fannie Mae's accounting troubles could be delayed into early February as investigators sift through volumes of new documents, some of which were just delivered last week, according to the lead investigator of Fannie's internal probe. |
| 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: Businesses behaving (less) badly
by Stephen Labaton, The New York Times
January 3rd, 2006
Even as the former top executives of Enron head to a climactic criminal trial soon, the impact of the company's ignominious collapse on the behavior of corporations across America has begun to show its limitations. |
| US: SEC Accuses 6 Ex-Putnam Execs of Fraud
Associated Press
January 3rd, 2006
Federal regulators have accused six former executives of Putnam Fiduciary Trust Co., the transfer agent for a big mutual fund company, of defrauding several funds and a 401(k) plan client of some $4 million in 2001. |
| US: The Big Winner, Again, Is 'Scandalot'
by Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times
January 1st, 2006
Same stuff, different year.
That's one way to look at 2005, the fourth consecutive year in which corporate chicanery loomed large. But while business titans' transgressions may have lacked creativity last year - there was the usual hubris, greed and accounting tricks to prop up stock prices - at least the cast of "Scandalot 2005" involved a few new characters.
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| 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: Profiting From Cures for the Sarbanes-Oxley Blues
by Eve Tahmincioglu, The New York Times
December 29th, 2005
New regulations that sprang from systematic fraud at those Enron and WorldCom have created a cottage industry of businesses that provide consulting, accounting, computer security and other services to help companies cope with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. That law was passed in an effort to clean up corporate accounting. |
| 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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| NEW GUINEA: Below a Mountain of Wealth, a River of Waste
by Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner, with Evelyn Rusli, The New York Times
December 27th, 2005
It is hard to discern the intricate web of political and military ties that have helped shield Freeport-McMoRan from the rising pressures that other gold miners have faced to clean up their practices. Only lightly touched by a scant regulatory regime, and cloaked in the protection of the military, Freeport has managed to maintain a nearly impenetrable redoubt on the easternmost Indonesian province as it taps one of the country's richest assets. |
| INDONESIA: The Cost of Gold: The Hidden Payroll
by Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner, The New York Times
December 27th, 2005
Months of investigation by The New York Times revealed a level of contacts and financial support to the military not fully disclosed by Freeport, despite years of requests by shareholders concerned about potential violations of American laws and the company's relations with a military whose human rights record is so blighted that the United States severed ties for a dozen years until November.
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| US: Deutche Bank Settles Arms-Trade Fraud Case
by Tim Huber, Pioneer Press
December 22nd, 2005
German financial giant Deutsche Bank has agreed to a $270 million settlement of claims that it participated in a complex securities fraud orchestrated by a fugitive Saudi arms merchant that bankrupted Minneapolis-based securities firm Stockwalk Group four years ago. |
| AUSTRALIA: Billionaire Pratt Faces Price-Fixing Charge
by Chris Noon, Forbes
December 21st, 2005
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has alleged that billionaire Richard Pratt--the chairman of paper recycling and packaging company Visy Industries--engaged in price fixing and market sharing in the cardboard box market. |
| GERMANY: Germany's Top Banker Faces Retrial
Associated Press
December 21st, 2005
A federal court ordered a retrial for Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann and five others on Wednesday over large payments to executives during Vodafone PLC's 2000 takeover of rival mobile phone company Mannesmann AG. |
| US: New licenses for RV sales halted in Louisiana
by Melinda DeSlatte, Associated Press
December 20th, 2005
Hoping to protect Louisiana businesses and stem an onslaught of out-of-state trailer salesmen setting up shop after the hurricanes, a state panel on Tuesday halted the issuance of new licenses for people to sell motor homes and travel trailers. |
| US: $64B diamond industry rocked by fraud
CNN
December 20th, 2005
A scandal has rocked the $64 billion global diamond business and tarnished the credibility of one the industry's biggest players,according to a news report Tuesday. |
| US: Ex-Chief of Qwest Is Indicted
Associated Press
December 20th, 2005
Joseph Nacchio, the former chief executive of Qwest Communications during its multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, was indicted Tuesday on 42 counts of insider trading accusing him of illegally selling off more than $100 million in stock. |
| 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: Conrad Black Indicted on Additional Charges
Associated Press
December 15th, 2005
Former newspaper mogul Conrad Black, already accused of fraud, was indicted by federal prosecutors Thursday on additional charges including racketeering and obstruction of justice. He now faces a maximum prison sentence of 95 years if convicted. |
| US: Report Says Ex-A.I.G. Chief Defrauded Foundation 35 Years Ago
by Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times
December 15th, 2005
Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, submitted a report yesterday as part of his lawsuit against Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, contending that Mr. Greenberg unfairly enriched himself and other A.I.G. executives in a series of transactions that violated the will of Cornelius Vander Starr, the company's founder, and defrauded a foundation he created. |
| US: Biloxi Axes Corps, Ashbritt
WLOX
December 14th, 2005
Jackson County supervisors disappointed in Army Corps and Ashbritt, who have hardly done any cleanup in and around Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula since Katrina. |
| 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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| US: Congressmen Took Bribes to Steer Defense Contracts to Conspirators
by Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post
November 28th, 2005
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) pleaded guilty today to fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and tax evasion. Shortly after entering his plea, Cunningham announced that he is immediately resigning his seat. His resignation comes after he admitted "he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators." |
| US: News Tycoon Stole Millions, US Charges
by Geraldine Fabrikant, The New York Times
November 18th, 2005
Conrad M. Black, once a major force in business, political and social circles in Manhattan and London, was indicted in Chicago yesterday on charges that he and three former colleagues stole $51.8 million from Hollinger International, the giant international newspaper publisher he helped create. |
| US: Testimony by Oil Executives Is Challenged
by Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times
November 17th, 2005
Senators from both parties demanded Wednesday that several oil executives explain statements they made to Congress last week about their ties to the energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney. |
| US: Lobbyists Advise Katrina Relief
by Alan C. Miller and Ken Silverstein, The Los Angeles Times
October 10th, 2005
Lobbyists representing transportation, energy and other special interests dominated panels that advised Louisiana's U.S. senators crafting legislation to rebuild the storm-damaged Gulf Coast, records and interviews show.
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| US: Refco Suspends Chief as Accounting Issues Emerge
by Vikas Bajaj and Floyd Norris, The New York Times
October 10th, 2005
Refco Inc., a futures trading company that went public two months ago, ousted its chief executive today after discovering that a firm he controlled owed the company $430 million. Refco's shares fell 45 percent, reducing the company's market value by $1.65 billion. |
| US: Katrina work goes to officials who led Iraq effort
by Adam Entous, Reuters
October 6th, 2005
Top officials who managed U.S. reconstruction projects in Iraq have been hired by some of the same big companies that received those contracts and which are now involved in a rush of deals to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. |
| RUSSIA: Prosecutors raid Yukos-affiliated cos.
The Associated Press
October 5th, 2005
Investigators raided a number of companies connected to the shattered Yukos oil empire, prosecutors said Wednesday, as part of a $7 billion money-laundering probe. |
| US: Minority Firms Getting Few Katrina Pacts
by Hope Yen, Associated Press
October 4th, 2005
Minority-owned businesses say they're paying the price for the decision by Congress and the Bush administration to waive certain rules for Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts. |
| US: Watchdogs Frustrated By Sarbanes Extension
by Michael Rapoport, Dow Jones Newswire
October 4th, 2005
The Securities and Exchange Commission's decision late last month to give the smallest public companies more time to comply with the so-called internal-controls rule of Sarbanes-Oxley has got some corporate-governance watchers crying foul. |
| US: Court Denies Bail for Former Tyco Execs
by Samuel Maull, The Washington Post
October 3rd, 2005
A state appeals court Monday refused to allow bail for former Tyco International executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz while they appeal their convictions on charges of stealing some $600 million from the company. |
| US: Spitzerism
by NOAM SCHEIBER, The New York Times
October 2nd, 2005
If recent history is any guide, Eliot Spitzer's chances of becoming governor of New York next year are greatly enhanced by the presence of the words "attorney general" on his rsum. Since 2002, Democrats nationwide have won 18 open seats for governor or senator. Six of the winners had served either as state attorney general or United States attorney. Two others were prosecutors before entering politics. Not even mayors or congressmen were as well represented. |
| US: U.S. Paying a Premium to Cover Storm-Damaged Roofs
by Aaron C. Davis, Knight Ridder
September 30th, 2005
Across the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, thousands upon thousands of blue tarps are being nailed to wind-damaged roofs, a visible sign of government assistance.
Construction crews working with TJC Defense, out of Alabama, install a blue tarp on a home in Kenner, Louisiana. Ian McVea, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The blue sheeting - a godsend to residents whose homes are threatened by rain - is rapidly becoming the largest roofing project in the nation's history.
It isn't coming cheap. |
| US: Deep Pockets, Small Government and the Man in the Middle
by Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
September 27th, 2005
Ideology and party loyalty are clashing among congressional Republicans these days, and the smart money is on party loyalty. Conservatives, enraged by talk of spending $200 billion on the Hurricane Katrina recovery, are calling on the leadership to slow down popular programs and to find spending cuts to offset the expenses. But congressional leaders have rejected most of the conservatives' entreaties. |
| US: Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions
by Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon, The New York Times
September 26th, 2005
Topping the federal government's list of costs related to Hurricane Katrina is the $568 million in contracts for debris removal landed by a Florida company with ties to Mississippi's Republican governor. Near the bottom is an $89.95 bill for a pair of brown steel-toe shoes bought by an Environmental Protection Agency worker in Baton Rouge, La. |
| US: US Companies Lag in Responsibility, Accountability
by Abid Aslam, OneWorld.net
September 25th, 2005
U.S. companies remain less accountable than European and Asian ones despite recent years' damaging revelations of management chicanery involving finances, labor relations, environmental performance, and consumer protection, a global survey said Friday.
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| US: Auditors investigate Katrina contracts
by Hope Yen, Associated Press
September 22nd, 2005
Government auditors are questioning whether several multimillion-dollar Katrina contracts including one involving a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co. invite abuse because they are open-ended and not clearly defined. |
| US: Ex-Tyco Executives Get 8 to 25 Years in Prison
by Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times
September 20th, 2005
L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco International who was convicted of looting the company of $150 million, was sentenced yesterday to 81/3 to 25 years in a New York State prison, the latest corporate figure to be handed a lengthy prison term in a corruption case. |
| CHILE: Detective Story that Linked 1m Pinochet Cash to BAE
by David Leigh, Jonathan Franklin in Santiago and Rob Evans, The Guardian, UK
September 15th, 2005
Augusto Pinochet, the 89-year-old former strongman of Chile and alleged torturer and murderer, has frequently slipped his pursuers, pleading ill health or relying on protectors at home in the Chilean military. But now an unexpected nemesis is pursuing him, in the shape of his tax returns. |
| US: Caremark to Settle Whistle-Blower Suit
by Milt Freudenheim, The New York Times
September 9th, 2005
Caremark Rx, the prescription drug plan manager, agreed yesterday to pay $137.5 million to settle federal lawsuits filed by whistle-blowers that accused a company it acquired in 2003 of improper dealings with pharmaceutical manufacturers. |
| US: KPMG Partners Lucked Out -- Thanks to Enron and Arthur Andersen
by Allan Sloan, Washington Post
September 6th, 2005
There's one group of people who should be giving thanks daily for the Enron scandal: the partners of KPMG, one of the Final Four accounting firms. That's because the fallout from Enron is what allowed KPMG to extract a favorable settlement from the Justice Department last week. The firm agreed to fork over less than a year's profit in return for not being indicted on a zillion counts of cheating the government by peddling sleazy, dishonest tax shelters for six years.
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| US: Settlement Seen on Tax Shelters by Audit Firm
by Jonathan D. Glater, The New York Times
August 27th, 2005
KPMG, the accounting firm under investigation for selling questionable tax shelters, will pay $456 million and accept an outside monitor of its operations under terms of an agreement with prosecutors that heads off an indictment of the firm, people briefed on the deal said yesterday.
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| US: Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions
by Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon, The New York Times
August 26th, 2005
Topping the federal government's list of costs related to Hurricane Katrina is the $568 million in contracts for debris removal landed by a Florida company with ties to Mississippi's Republican governor. Near the bottom is an $89.95 bill for a pair of brown steel-toe shoes bought by an Environmental Protection Agency worker in Baton Rouge, La. |
| US: Mobil, CIA Secrets May Come Out un Bribery Trial of Oil Adviser
by David Glovin, Bloomberg
August 24th, 2005
Federal prosecutors say Giffen, a New York investment banker who became an official in Kazakhstan's government, cemented his power by bribing Kazakh leaders with $84 million that Amoco Corp., Mobil Oil Co., Phillips Petroleum Co. and Texaco Inc. paid to win access to Kazakh fields. In January, Giffen goes on trial in federal district court in New York in one of the largest overseas criminal bribery cases ever. |
| 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 Kufuors 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? |
| ROMANIA: An oil fortune bound in red tape
by Terence O'Hara, Washington Post
August 16th, 2005
G. Philip Stephenson does not cut the figure of an Eastern European oil baron, clashing with formerly communist security officials over the legality of his budding empire. |
| CHINA: Southern exec arrested in brokerage fallout
The Standard, Hong Kong
August 16th, 2005
A top executive with China's biggest airline has been arrested for economic crime, an executive with the carrier's parent said Monday, as the fallout from a major brokerage's failure widened. |
| US: WorldCom Figure Is Sentenced
by Reuters
August 10th, 2005
The former director of accounting at WorldCom, Buford Yates Jr., was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on August 9, 2005 for his role in the large fraud at the company. |
| GERMANY: Germany ponders extent of corruption as heads roll
by Patrick Jenkins and Hugh Williamson, Financial Times
July 28th, 2005
Four big scandals have come to light in as many months at big blue chip companies - Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, Infineon and Commerzbank. In each case, allegations of bribe taking, money-laundering and related crimes have led to the resignation of senior executives.
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| GERMANY: Commerzbank is at center of probe
by Glenn R. Simpson, David Crawford and Gregory L. White, Wall Street Journal
July 25th, 2005
One of Germany's biggest banks is at the center of an intensifying money-laundering investigation into whether Russian telecommunications assets now worth hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted through a company set up by a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. |
| US: Sony Agrees to Halt Gifts for Airtime
by Jennifer Bayot, The New York Times
July 25th, 2005
Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the world's largest record companies, agreed today to stop providing lavish gifts, free trips and other giveaways in exchange for airtime for its artists on radio stations, under the terms of a settlement with the New York attorney general's office. |
| US: Whistleblower suit against Custer Battles can proceed
by Matthew Barakat, Associated Press State & Local Wire
July 11th, 2005
Two whistleblowers who allege that a Fairfax-based contractor cheated taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars on reconstruction projects in Iraq can proceed with their lawsuit, a judge has ruled. But parts of the ruling could have negative consequences for those who file similar claims against other contractors, according to a lawyer for the whistleblowers. |
| US: A.I.G. Role for Ex-Chief of S.E.C.
by Jenny Anderson, New York Times
July 6th, 2005
The American International Group has hired Arthur Levitt, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as a consultant to the board in an effort to quell dissent from institutional investors. |
| US: Ebbers Set to Shed His Assets
by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times
July 1st, 2005
Bernard J. Ebbers, the founder and former chief executive of World Com who was found guilty of fraud by a New York jury in March, agreed yesterday to surrender nearly all of his personal fortune - about $40 million - to investors who lost billions when the company spiraled into bankruptcy almost three years ago. |
| ITALY: Italy judge sentences 11 to jail in Parmalat case
by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Emilio Parodi, Reuters
June 28th, 2005
A Milan judge sentenced 10 former Parmalat executives and a lawyer to jail on Tuesday in the first guilty ruling over the 14-billion-euro (9.3-billion-pound) collapse of Italy's biggest listed food group. |
| US: New Report on CEO Earnings
by John Burton and Christian Weller, Center for American Progress
May 23rd, 2005
A report form the Center for American Progress details how Corporate CEOs have enjoyed record levels of compensation and corporations have seen record profits, as more and more middle-class Americans are experiencing stagnant wages and vanishing benefits. |
| INDIA: In Dabhol Lawyers, Leopards Dare Tread
by Braden Reddall, Reuters
February 18th, 2005
The $2.9 billion plant that bankrupt U.S. energy giant Enron built was a technological breakthrough and still represents the largest single foreign investment in India. But since shutting down almost four years ago, it has proven more of an embarrassment than a showcase. |
| COSTA RICA: Financial Row Deepens
BBC
October 27th, 2004
A former president of Costa Rica has admitted receiving almost $1m from a French telecoms company, but claimed he took no money while in office. |
| US: A Record Year for Shareholder Activism
by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science Monitor
June 28th, 2004
Question: What single force can get Tyco International to strive for cleaner emissions, inspire PepsiCo to study the impact of AIDS in developing nations, and even get Merck & Co. to declare its intentions to not manufacture an abortion pill? Answer: shareholders. |
| NIGERIA: Vodacom in Eye of Stormgeria
by Gugulakhe Masango
June 2nd, 2004
Just days before reporting its maiden full-year results as a listed firm, Telkom has thrown a wall of secrecy around the scandal that has rocked cellphone subsidiary Vodacom, the jewel in its crown. |
| ITALY: Grapples With the Parmalat Effect
by Tony Barber and Fred Kapner , Financial Times
May 7th, 2004
Italian companies, their image stung by the Parmalat scandal, are scrambling to improve transparency and corporate governance. |
| IRAQ: US Unearths Iraqi Front Companies
BBC
April 16th, 2004
Eight firms and five people have been named by US and UK investigators as fronts used to finance the activities of the former Iraqi regime. |
| Iraq: Halliburton's Role In Iraq - from Meals to Oil
by Sue Pleming, Reuters
April 12th, 2004
Texas company Halliburton, which has seven workers missing in Iraq, is the U.S. military's biggest contractor there, responsibe for everything from preparing meals for U.S. troops to repairing Iraq's oil infrastructure. |
| US: Boeing Sex-Bias Case to Go to Trial
by David Bowermaster, The Seattle Times
April 10th, 2004
class-action lawsuit that accuses Boeing of discriminating against 28,000 current and former female workers in Puget Sound will go to trial May 17, a federal judge ruled yesterday. |
| US: Pentagon Asks Congress For Environment Waivers
The Associated Press
April 7th, 2004
The Defense Department wants the government to ease environmental laws to avoid costly cleanups of military ranges and give states more time to handle air pollution from training exercises. |
| US: Don't Expect Fed To Limit Banks' Bad Behavior
by Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
March 17th, 2004
How many financial scandals does a banking company have to be involved in before the Federal Reserve will finally conclude it isn't up to the task of taking control of yet another big bank? |
| US: Federal Prosecutors Seek to Indict Reliant
by Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times
March 9th, 2004
Federal prosecutors plan to indict a Reliant Resources Inc. unit on charges that it withheld much-needed electricity to boost prices during California's energy crisis, the Houston-based power company said Monday. |
| US: Ex-Enron Boss Charged with Fraud
by Mark Tran, Guardian (London)
February 19th, 2004
Jeff Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, has been charged with 42 counts of fraud, insider trading and giving false statements to auditors in a federal indictment released today. The indictment also includes new charges against former Enron chief accounting officer, Rick Causey, who pleaded not guilty to six fraud counts last month. |
| US: A WorldCom Settlement Falls Apart
by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times
February 3rd, 2004
A landmark settlement last month that had 10 former WorldCom directors agreeing to pay $18 million from their own pockets to investors who lost money in the company's failure was scuttled after the judge overseeing the case ruled that one aspect of the deal was illegal. |
| US: Enron Accountant Pleads Not Guilty To Charges
by Christine Hauser, New York Times
January 22nd, 2004
Enron's former chief accounting officer, Richard A. Causey, has been charged with five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit security fraud related to the collapse of the company more than two years ago, the Department of Justice said today. The charges follow guilty pleas entered earlier this month by Enron's former chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow, and his wife, Lea. |
| US: Liquidation of the Commons
by Adam Werbach, In These Times
November 21st, 2003
There has not been such a wholesale giveaway of our common assets to corporate interests since the presidency of William McKinley. In the 1896 presidential election, McKinley was aided in his battle against the great American populist, William Jennings Bryan, by coal and oil magnate Mark Hanna. Hanna has been cited by Karl Rove, President Bushs key political adviser, as a major influence and inspiration. |
| USA: Cheney Had Iraq in His Sight
by Simon English in New York, The Daily Telegraph/UK
July 22nd, 2003
Documents released under America's Freedom of Information Act reveal that an energy task force led by vice-president Dick Cheney was examining Iraq's oil assets two years before the latest war began. |
| USA: Enron Used U.S. Government to Bully Developing Nations
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service
May 30th, 2003
Defunct energy giant Enron used the U.S. government to coerce the World Bank and poor nations to grant concessions and resolve its investment problems, according to documents and correspondence released by the Treasury Department. |
| WORLD: Internal Review Criticizes World Bank Mining, Oil and Gas Projects
by By Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service
April 2nd, 2003
The World Bank should revamp its lending policies for mining, oil and gas projects to avoid corruption, mismanagement and poor economic performance spreading in countries that rely on such industries, says a confidential study by the Bank's internal review body. |
| USA: The Ten Worst Corporations of 2002
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Multinational Monitor
January 3rd, 2003
2002 will forever be remembered as the year of corporate crime, the year even President George Bush embraced the notion of "corporate responsibility." |
| USA: Enron Election Fallout Expected to be Minor
by Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle
October 22nd, 2002
WASHINGTON -- After Enron went through its high-profile collapse, elected officials trembled at the price they might have to pay this November. |
| US: Lawsuit Seeks IPO Profits From Five Executives
Washington Post
October 1st, 2002
NEW YORK (September 30) -- New York's attorney general today sought to force five telecommunications executives to give up millions of dollars in profits they earned selling shares in companies going public during the Internet boom. |
| US: Telecom Swap Meet
by Cynthia L. Webb, WashingtonPost.com
September 25th, 2002
Surprise, surprise. Some big telecoms, just like a variety of other New Economy firms, engaged in questionable accounting practices to inflate revenues. In the case of several brand-name telecoms, the companies swapped bandwidth capacity with each other and then booked the deals as revenue. Revelations of just how far many companies took this scheme -- including allegations of verbal agreements made in tandem with written contracts -- were highlighted at a congressional hearing yesterday. |
| USA: The Vast Sucking Sound of White Collar Crime
by Farai Chedeya, Pop and Politics.com
September 18th, 2002
The only paper I read with regularity these days is the Wall Street Journal. Although its editorial writers are patently insane, the news and feature writers have recently dedicated themselves to thoughtful pieces on what should be the most important story of our day: the collapse of our economy. |
| US: Enron's Giant Bandwith Scam
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
September 13th, 2002
At some point it dawned on the wheeler-dealers at Enron that selling real things - like gas and oil - had it limits. What they needed were products that had no physical limits. Energy contract futures were their first discovery, and how sweet they were. No more messy oil or smelly gas to deliver - just electronic bookkeeping notations. That's when Jeffrey Skilling discovered a product so ephemeral it bordered on metaphysical - bandwidth. |
| USA: IRS Kicks Back Corporate Fines
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
September 4th, 2002
Ever wonder why it is that when a company gets caught lying to, and/or cheating investors that they so often settle the case quickly, agreeing to pay millions of dollars back but ''without admitting or denying'' they did anything wrong? |
| USA: What Do You Mean 'Us,' Boss?
by Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
September 2nd, 2002
Not long ago, before the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and other companies, workers often saw themselves as management's best buddies. Gone was the old, us-against-them mentality in which workers viewed C.E.O.'s as robber barons intent on squeezing them for every last dollar. |
| USA: Enron Puts Assets Up for Sale
CNN/Money
August 27th, 2002
NEW YORK -- Bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. started taking bids Tuesday for 12 assets, including electric utilities and natural gas pipelines, that make up a large portion of Enron's total holdings. |
| US: Government Secrecy and Corporate Crime
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
August 27th, 2002
What began with Vice President Dick Cheney's refusal 15 months ago to make his energy task force documents public expanded quickly to include policy making at virtually every level of government. And, after September 11, the blanket of secrecy - which had until then only covered the brass breasts of the DOJ's Lady Justice statue - darkened some of America's most valued constitutional protections. |
| USA: Enron Exec Kopper Cops a Plea
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
August 22nd, 2002
Yesterday former Enron insider Michael Kopper copped a plea. The former assistant to former Enron CFO, Andrew Fastow, jumped the first deal-express leaving the Department of Justice. |
| ASIA: Globalization Critics Gain from US Corp Scandals
by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service
August 13th, 2002
The timing of the scandals is apt, say some critics from South and South-east Asia, who ended a three-day conference here Monday. The crisis in corporate America comes at a moment when the Anti-Globalization movement in the region is reasserting itself after losing some steam following the September 11th attacks on the United States, they add. |
| USA: Cheney Dodges Halliburton Questions
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
August 8th, 2002
Vice President Dick Cheney ventured out of hiding yesterday. It was his first public appearance since becoming embroiled in allegations that his former company, Halliburton, cooked its books during his tenure as CEO. |
| USA: Harken Had Offshore Tax Shelter
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
July 31st, 2002
The New York Daily News reported today in an exclusive story that Harken Energy Corp. set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands to avoid US taxes during the time President Bush saton Harken's board of directors. |
| USA: Politics Cleared Way for Financial Scandals
by Molly Ivins, Boulder Daily Camera
July 31st, 2002
The New Yorker magazine published an amusing parody on recent business scandals last week, including this gem: "Mr. Cheney called for an end to innuendo about his activities in a now bankrupt Pitcairn Island firm that sold itself the air rights to a million acres of West Texas flatlands, deducted the transaction from its taxes as an entertainment expense, then borrowed $14 million interest-free from the Lichtenstein bank it owned, using its assets of company-acquired Callaway golf clubs as collateral, to finance the purchase of gifts for some Bessarabian oil prospectors who were then passing through Dallas." |
| USA: Tricky Dick
by Robert Scheer, Creators Syndicate
July 17th, 2002
Vice President Dick Cheney has spent most of the past year in hiding, ostensibly from terrorists. But increasingly it seems obvious that it is Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the media and the public he fears. And for good reason: Cheney's business behavior could serve as a textbook case of much of what's wrong with the way corporate CEOs have come to play the game of business. |
| USA: Corporate Misdeeds Foment Corruption in Developing Countries
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service
July 12th, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The multinational firms recently fingered for corrupt practices in the United States may be practicing similar operations on a larger scale in developing countries, say long-time corporate watchdogs. |
| USA: Bush Wall Street Road Show Flops
by Stephen Pizzo, The Daily Enron
July 10th, 2002
There was more than a little of the surreal to President Bush's speech yesterday. The speech, billed as a major policy address on Bush's get-tough-on-corporate-crime agenda, came amidst days of news revelations of President's own questionable behavior as an executive of Harken Energy. |
| USA: In Effort to Save Self Bush Undermines Reform
The Daily Enron
July 9th, 2002
Over the 4th of July weekend, stories about Bush's questionable behavior as an executive of Harken Energy became grist for the weekend talk shows. With today's Wall Street policy speech looming, the President and his men hoped that addressing the inevitable press questions about Harken the day before would take the steam out of the issue today. |
| USA: Cracking Down on Corporate Crime, Really
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, CommonDreams.org
July 4th, 2002
Here is one of the most remarkable aspects of the still-unfolding financial scandals swirling around Worldcom, Xerox, Global Crossing, Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco and a growing number of other companies: The fraud occurred in the most heavily regulated and monitored area of corporate activity |
| USA: Dynegy CEO is Much Richer for Being Forced Out
by Floyd Norris, New York Times
May 30th, 2002
The chairman and chief executive of the struggling energy company Dynegy, whose departure was announced on Tuesday, is entitled under his contract to a huge severance check -- one that is about $33 million more than he would have made had the company allowed him to serve out the eight months remaining on the contract. |
| EU: ''Enronitis'' Spreads
Toronto Globe & Mail
May 23rd, 2002
WASHINGTON, DC -- An Enron Corp. backlash is rolling across Europe, feeding skepticism about the United States as a financial role model as top U.S. and European Union market regulators prepare to meet here next week. |
| US: Internal Memos Connect Enron to California Energy Crisis
by Mark Martin, San Francisco Chronicle
May 7th, 2002
Energy traders for Enron used elaborate schemes with nicknames like ''Death Star'' and''Get Shorty'' to manipulate California's electricity market and boost profits, according to internal company memos released by federal regulators Monday. |
| USA: Feds Reject Andersen Settlement Offer
by Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
April 26th, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has rejected a proposal from accounting firm Arthur Andersen for settlement of a criminal obstruction charge stemming from the shredding of Enron Corp. documents, an Andersen attorney said Friday. |
| USA: Enron Suit Targets Wall St. Firms
by C. Bryson Hull and Andrew Quinn, Reuters
April 8th, 2002
HOUSTON/SAN FRANCISCO -- Enron Corp. shareholders on Monday charged some of the biggest players on Wall Street with fraud, saying investment banks and securities firms colluded with Enron executives to bilk investors out of at least $25 billion. |
| USA: Andersen Operations Split
by Jane Merriman and Bill Rigby, Reuters
April 4th, 2002
LONDON/NEW YORK -- Andersen said most of its U.S. tax partners would join rival Deloitte and Touche on Thursday, as the world's No. 5 accounting firm, facing a criminal charge for its role in the Enron scandal, headed further toward disintegration. |
| USA: DeLay, Enron and the Marianas
The Daily Enron
April 4th, 2002
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) relishes in describing the Marianas as his personal Galapagos Islands. The 14-island chain of Pacific Islands has long been DeLay's image of a perfect business environment -- virtually devoid of business or environmental regulations. Only one other entity, Enron, curried more favor with DeLay. |
| World: Enron's Tactics Overseas Criticized
by Jennifer Autrey, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 24th, 2002
Ugly scenarios played out repeatedly on the world stage in the past decade as Enron emerged as the dominant force in the energy industry. While Enron built a reputation as a savvy deal maker and charitable giver in the United States, it has long been perceived quite differently abroad. |
| INDIA: Novelist Roy is Grassroots Hero
by Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian (UK)
March 7th, 2002
When Arundhati Roy woke up at 5.30am this morning in Tihar prison, New Delhi, it must have struck her that reality was proving stranger than any fiction. Over the past week terrible communal violence in India has claimed hundreds of lives while the forces of law and order stood by. This has now been juxtaposed with the spectacle of a diminutive, softly spoken novelist being sent to one of the country's most notorious prisons to uphold what the supreme court called the ''glory of the law'' because she dared to criticize it. |
| Latin America: Enron Fallout is a Hot Issue
Oil Daily
March 4th, 2002
The implications of Enron's dramatic fall extend far beyond US borders. The once-mighty energy giant's murky dealings in Latin America have emerged as a hot political issue throughout the region, where politicians in some countries are using it as an election tool or to take attention away from their own economic or political woes. |
| USA: Employees Win Round in Enron Suit
by Christian Murray, Newsday
February 21st, 2002
The thousands of Enron employees who saw their 401(k) plans wiped out will be able to take the energy trader to court Monday, following a federal bankruptcy ruling in Manhattan yesterday. |
| USA: Enron Lobbyist Plotted Strategy Against Democrats
by Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times
February 11th, 2002
While the Bush administration was drafting its national energy policy, a leading lobbyist for Enron Corp. was plotting strategy to turn the plan into a political weapon against Democrats, according to a newly obtained memo. |
| US: Bush Sr.'s Ties to Global Crossing
by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle
February 11th, 2002
President Bush had good reason to take an interest in Enron's demise. Aside from his close personal ties to the Houston energy giant, nearly three dozen of his senior appointees owned Enron shares upon arriving at the White House last year. |
| India: Enron's Debacle at Dabhol
by Sandip Roy, Pacific News Service
February 8th, 2002
Enron's collapse may have begun with the kind of misadventures it engaged in half a world away among the quiet coastal villages of Dabhol, India. |
| USA: Halliburton -- To the Victors Go the Markets
by Jordan Green, Facing South
February 1st, 2002
The influence of big energy corporations in the Bush Administration is no secret. But the story of Dick Cheney and his former company, Halliburton Co., has received little attention -- and it may be the most important. |
| USA: Enron Chair Gave List of Favored Names to White House
by Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
February 1st, 2002
A few months after the White House got a list of recommended candidates from former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, a friend and backer of President Bush, two of them were appointed to a federal energy commission. |
| USA: Enron Got Its Money's Worth
by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
January 24th, 2002
The administration's energy program, developed by Vice President Dick Cheney in secret meetings -- six of them with Enron officials -- could have been written by lobbyists for the now failed company. |
| USA: Fired Andersen Partner Refuses to Testify on Enron
by Kevin Drawbaugh and Susan Cornwell, Reuters
January 24th, 2002
A fired partner of auditor Andersen refused to testify to Congress on the destruction of evidence in the collapse of energy giant Enron, prompting lawmakers to say he was frustrating their probe. |
| USA: Enron's New $5 Billion Black Hole
by Jamie Doward, The Observer (UK)
January 20th, 2002
Investigators probing the accounts of collapsed energy giant Enron are examining what happened to more than $5 billion in loans and investments the company made to subsidiaries kept off its balance sheet. The scale of the black hole opening up looks as if it could dwarf previous estimates. |
| USA: VP Tried to Aid Enron in India
by Timothy J. Burger, New York Daily News
January 18th, 2002
Vice President Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from a giant energy project in India, government documents obtained by the Daily News show. |
| USA: Bush Faces Flak Over Links to Defense Contractor
by Jason Niss, The Independent (UK)
January 13th, 2002
President George W Bush's administration, already on the back foot over its connections with the collapsed energy giant Enron, faces questions over a massive defence contract which aided an investment firm with Bush family links. |
| USA: Auditor Says Enron Documents Gone
by Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
January 10th, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The firm that audited the books of collapsed Enron Corp., Arthur Andersen LLP, disclosed Thursday that a ''significant but undetermined'' number of documents related to the company had been destroyed. |
| USA: Don't Cry for Enron, Argentina
by Paul Krugman, San Francisco Chronicle
December 12th, 2001
Not long ago Argentina, like Enron, was a darling of the financial community. And like Enron, Argentina was held up as a role model, to a large extent by the same people -- Argentina's monetary system, in particular, was lauded in the pages of Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, and feted at libertarian think tanks. |
| US: Enron's Legacy
by David Morris, AlterNet
December 3rd, 2001
Kenneth Lay is living proof that one person can change the world. His company, Enron, may be in shambles. In three months, it may no longer exist. But for the rest of our lives we will live in a world redesigned by Kenneth Lay. |
| USA: Enron on Brink of Bankruptcy
by Kristen Hays, Associated Press
November 29th, 2001
HOUSTON -- The slick financing that helped turn Enron Corp. into a mighty power-brokering dynamo became its Achilles' heel, leaving the energy trader teetering toward bankruptcy after a smaller rival abandoned plans to buy it. |
| USA: Enron, Dynegy Confirm Possible Merger Talks
by Jeff Franks, Reuters
November 8th, 2001
HOUSTON -- Enron Corp., plagued by investor doubts and under the gun to shore up its crumbling finances, said on Thursday it was talking with power trading rival Dynegy Inc. about a possible merger. |
| KENYA: Japan Suspends Funding for Sondu Miriu Dam
by Jennifer Wanjiru, Environment News Service
June 4th, 2001
Citing "environmental disruption and corruption" in a letter to the government of Kenya, Japan's Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka indicated that suspension of funding for the Sondu Miriu hydropower dam project was ''a response to criticism from environmental campaigners and differences between Kenya and Japan over further funding.'' |
| US: Making World Trade Fair
by Doreen Hemlock, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 6th, 2001
They're often portrayed as obstructionists to trade and the global economy. But the social movement that mobilized thousands in Quebec last month -- and earlier in Seattle and Prague -- is maturing beyond street protests. |
| USA: 500 Protest Enron Plant
by David Fleshler, Sun-Sentinel
March 27th, 2001
More than 500 people packed the Pompano Beach Civic Center on Monday night in a formidable display of opposition to Enron Corp.'s plans for a power plant next to Florida's Turnpike. |
| USA: Cheney Made Millions Off Oil Deals with Hussein
by Martin A. Lee, San Francisco Bay Guardian
November 13th, 2000
During former defense secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Inc., his oil services firm raked in big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq. Cheney left Halliburton with a $34 million retirement package last July when he became the GOP's vice-presidential candidate |
| JAPAN: Police Raid Mitsubishi Motors
Business Recorder
August 28th, 2000
Japanese police investigators raided the offices of Mitsubishi Motors Corp on Sunday on suspicion of concealing customer complaints and recalls from government inspectors for decades, Kyodo news agency reported. |
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