CorpWatch Exclusives
 | Capita Bungles Deportation of Irregular Migrants in UK by Lily Smith, CorpWatch Blog February 18th, 2013 Capita, a UK outsourcing company, sent text messages to thousands of people in the UK, asking them to leave the country, as part of a privatized deportation scheme. Unfortunately hundreds of people that they targeted were in the country legally. |
 | Nestlé Found Guilty of Spying on Swiss Activists by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog January 30th, 2013 Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, has been found guilty of spying on Swiss activists in 2003 with the help of Securitas, a private security company. Jean-Luc Genillard, president of the Lausanne civil court, told the two companies to pay $3,267.55 to each of nine victims. |
 | “Cyberazzi” – Data Mining Companies Investigated for Invasion of Privacy by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog January 21st, 2013 The paparazzi hide in bushes and use telephoto lenses to snap pictures of celebrities. The “cyberazzi” parachute into web browsers and sneak up behind mobile phones to spy on ordinary people. Nine such data mining companies must report what personal information they gather for sale by next week. |
 | Walmart Faces Increased Scrutiny Over Bangladesh Sweatshop Fire by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog January 7th, 2013 Walmart is coming under increased scrutiny for its ties to a garment factory in Dhaka where 112 workers were trapped and killed in a fire in late November 2012. The company, which buys $1 billion in clothing a year from Bangladesh, initially tried to deny any connection. |
 | Deadly Conflict Over Honduran Palm Oil Plantations Spotlights CEO by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog December 31st, 2012 Miguel Facussé, the owner of Dinant Corporation in the Honduras, has come under scrutiny for the human rights abuses against farmers in the Bajo Aguán valley, where his company is cashing in on a boom in palm oil demand, fueled by loans from major donors like the World Bank. |
 | Private Prison for Asylum Seekers on Pacific Island by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog September 17th, 2012 Transfield Services, an Australian logistics company that provides services to the mining and oil industry among others, has won a $25.9 million contract from the government of Australia to run a detention center for asylum seekers in the Pacific island nation of Nauru. |
 | Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycott by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog September 11th, 2012 Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. |
 | Obama Administration Backs Shell in Supreme Court Case by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog August 24th, 2012 The Obama administration is backing Shell Oil after abruptly changing sides in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that could make it even more difficult for survivors of human rights abuses overseas to sue multinational corporations in federal courts. The case will be heard on October 1. |
 | Clash At Maruti Suzuki Car Factory Reflects Failures Of India, Inc. by Freny Manecksha, CorpWatch Blog July 30th, 2012 Hundreds of workers at a Haryana factory for India's biggest carmaker - Maruti Suzuki - are being rounded up by police after a violent clash left a manager dead. The incident has become a symbol of the clash between winners and losers in the country's economic boom. |
 | Spies in Africa’s Skies: New Contractors for the Pentagon by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog June 18th, 2012 Sierra Nevada Corporation from Sparks, Nevada, and R-4, Inc. from Eatontown, New Jersey - are two companies at the forefront of the covert war in Africa, where they operate small Swiss aircraft to spy on behalf of the U.S. Special Operations Command. |
 | Coffee Colonialism: Olam Plantation Displaces Lao Farmers by Beaumont Smith, Special to CorpWatch June 4th, 2012 Olam International, a Singapore based multinational, is growing coffee for export in Paksong, southern Laos. The land for the plantation was seized by Sonesay Siphandone, the district governor, from the upland Nha Huen/Yahern community who have been left without food to eat. |
 | Faking Happiness: Activists Strike Back at Vedanta Ad Campaign by Freny Manecksha, CorpWatch Blog May 30th, 2012 Vedanta Resources, a UK based mining and metals company with numerous projects in India, is attempting to claim to be social responsible via a huge advertising campaign. However activists have struck back by effectively using social media tools to counter Vedanta's claims. |
 | Privatizing Asylum Housing: Serco and G4S Get UK Contracts by Lily Smith, CorpWatch Blog May 8th, 2012 G4S and Serco – two private security contractors - have just been awarded multi-million pound contracts by the UK Borders Authority to provide housing to asylum seekers, edging out charities for the work. Activists are protesting, saying that G4S has a history of abusing immigrants and providing poor quality housing. |
 | Glencore Allegedly Buys Copper From Ten Year Old Miners by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog April 17th, 2012 Children as young as ten in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, dig for cobalt and copper which they then sell to Switzerland-based Glencore, the world’s largest commodities company, according to a new BBC investigation. |
 | Chiquita Banana To Face Colombia Torture Claim by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog March 30th, 2012 Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia that are alleged to have used “random and targeted violence” against villagers in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita’s private port. |
| State of Surveillance by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch/The Bureau of Investigative Journalism December 1st, 2011 A new cache of Wikileaks documents on the secretive surveillance industry uncovers 160 companies in 25 countries that make $5 billion a year selling sophisticated surveillance technology to security authorities around the world to secretly carry out mass surveillance of people via their phones and computers. |
 | Nightmare on Christmas Island: Serco's Australian Detention Center by Patrick O'Keeffe, Special to CorpWatch October 25th, 2011 Serco, a UK company, has a contract to manage the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre some 1,600 miles off the West Coast of Australia, which houses thousands of asylum seekers. The detainees at the overcrowded facility are experiencing serious mental health problems that union organizers say are a result of poor training and understaffing. |
 | Indian Betel Farmers Battle South Korean Steel Giant by Moushumi Basu with Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch August 30th, 2011 Farmers in Odisha are challenging POSCO, a South Korean steel giant. The confrontation is yet another David versus Goliath battle pitting “progress” against traditional agriculturists in a struggle to define development in India. |
 | The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report by Antonia Juhasz, True Cost of Chevron May 25th, 2010 Chevron's 2009 Annual Report celebrates 130 years of Chevron operations. We, the communities and our allies who bear the consequences of Chevron's offshore drilling rigs, oil and natural gas production, coal fields, refineries, depots, pipelines, exploration, chemical plants, political control, consumer abuse, false promises, and much more, have a very different account to offer. |
 | ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
by Charlie Cray, Special to CorpWatch May 18th, 2010 ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform. |