Gulliver
Exposing corporate wrongdoing
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Sony
Sony is one of the world's biggest consumer electronics and entertainment companies. Founded in 1946, it parlayed its success with floppy disks, compact discs, the Walkman, and the Playstation into Hollywood with the purchase of Columbia Pictures in 1989. Its music division has come under flak for 'payola' - bribing radio stations to buy airtime for its artists - and its film division for publishing fake reviews by 'critic' David Manning to boost unpopular films in 2001. In 2005, it paid New York state $10 million to close an investigation by Eliot Spitzer, then state attorney general, into lavish gifts, free trips and other giveaways to media executives.
Total S.A.
Total is a fossil fuel exploration company. Founded in 1924 as the Compagnie Française des Pétroles (French Petroleum Company) with the support of the French government and banks, it was renamed Total in 1985. It is the biggest shareholder and operator of the Yadana gas pipeline in Burma (now Myanmar) where the army was accused of forced labor and killing in the Tennaserim peninsula. In 2005 the company paid out €5.2 million to eight Burmese villagers who sued the company for human rights abuses. Total has also been sued by villagers in the Lake Albert region of Uganda for landgrabbing. In South America, Total has been under fire for plans to drill in the Foz do Amazonas basin of Brazil and off the coast of French Guiana.