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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Malefactors of Great Wealth

Malefactors of Great Wealth

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Hat tip to Southern Beale for the news that Bloomberg Markets magazine has uploaded a new expose on “The Secret Sins of the Koch Brothers“:

… A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries — in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East — has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.
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Internal company documents show that the company made those sales through foreign subsidiaries, thwarting a U.S. trade ban. Koch Industries units have also rigged prices with competitors, lied to regulators and repeatedly run afoul of environmental regulations, resulting in five criminal convictions since 1999 in the U.S. and Canada.
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From 1999 through 2003, Koch Industries was assessed more than $400 million in fines, penalties and judgments. In December 1999, a civil jury found that Koch Industries had taken oil it didn’t pay for from federal land by mismeasuring the amount of crude it was extracting. Koch paid a $25 million settlement to the U.S.
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Phil Dubose, a Koch employee who testified against the company said he and his colleagues were shown by their managers how to steal and cheat — using techniques they called the Koch Method.
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In 1999, a Texas jury imposed a $296 million verdict on a Koch pipeline unit — the largest compensatory damages judgment in a wrongful death case against a corporation in U.S. history. The jury found that the company’s negligence had led to a butane pipeline rupture that fueled an explosion that killed two teenagers.
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Former Koch employees in the U.S. and Europe have testified or told investigators that they’ve witnessed wrongdoing by the company or have been asked by Koch managers to take what they saw as improper actions…
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“How much lawless behavior are we going to tolerate from any one company?” asks David Uhlmann, who oversaw the prosecution of the Koch refinery division when he was chief of the environmental crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. “Corporate cultures reflect the priorities of the corporation and its senior officials.”…

It’s worth reading the whole thing, although if you’re easily agitated you may want to have your blood-pressure medication at hand. Charles and David Koch have been accused, and frequently convicted, of every possible crime this side of dog fighting & kiddy porn — and if they could find a safe-at-one-remove “corporate” method of profiting from those hobbies, it sure doesn’t sound like they’d hesitate due to issues of morality or the general public welfare. They’re living embodiments of the old J.P. Morgan quote: “Whatever isn’t nailed down, is mine. Whatever I can pry loose, wasn’t nailed down.”

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    singfoom

    Cleanup in aisle FP, FPers dumping on the poor Koch brothers. Jeez, Anne and John, why are you so class warfarey?

  3. 3.

    Curious Gorge

    And if the corporation were a person, shouldn’t it be in jail?

    I’m thinking separate cells would be preferable, but maybe more justice would ensue if they were locked up together, where they could do some real-time blameshifting.

  7. 7.

    Kola Noscopy

    The blonde needs to be arrested for wearing that hideous purple Roman caftan in public…or in private.

    Also, too: It would have been awesome to see those protesters start climbing the building to get to that balcony, and thus send the swells skittering like cockroaches…

  9. 9.

    beltane

    @Kola Noscopy: Your lack of civility is making David Broder’s ghost weep.

    The only thing wrong with your scenario is that David Brooks is not sitting there on the balcony with Megan McArdle by his side.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    All this means is that, when the rich malefactors are at long last dealt with, the usual protections of the law will not apply.

    As the French aristocracy discovered at the end of the 18th century.

    They’ve earned that treatment.

  13. 13.

    Linda Featheringill

    The Swells. What an old fashioned word. But very descriptive.

    Very interesting video clip though because the Swells in question Just Cannot See What Is Going On down on the ground.

    [I need to look up that quote about the freight train of history. Hmmmmm. ]

  17. 17.

    handsmile

    At the moment, an AMERICAN WHITE GIRL IN SEX MURDER TRIAL is transfixing the national media. It will be worth monitoring whether this Bloomberg expose on Koch Industries is picked up by other news organizations; repetition and amplification being the necessary components to break through the “Breaking News” compulsion.

    An enterprising journalist, admittedly an endangered breed, might also consider digging into the relationship between the Koch Brothers and that other Shiny New Object of media inFATuation, Chris Christie, as begun by this Alternet article last week, “Why the Kochs Want to Make Chris Christie President”:
    http://www.alternet.org/news/152553/why_the_kochs_want_to_make_chris_christie_president

  20. 20.

    The Other Chuck

    I heard it was a wedding reception. Given the place, they might still be Wall Street Fat Cats, but I’m not sure it justifies the guillotine treatment.

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Linda Featheringill:

    I’m not sure history is that much of a freight train, as much as it is a glacier.

    Tends to move slowly, except in a few places where it moves in spurts.

    You can usually avoid being run over by the glacier if you’re not a dumbass. Dumbass: William F. Buckley. Not a dumbass: Otto von Bismarck.

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @handsmile:

    It really is amazing how much media attention is being paid to this.

    Or not, as it’s a great diversion from shit that actually has a measurable impact on the day to day life of the average American.

  27. 27.

    Chris

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    This. If the guys at the top don’t respect the law, the thinking goes, why should anyone else? In fact, if guys who break the law get to the top, EVERYONE should break the law!

    After all, we should all be trying to emulate the Successful Class instead of envying them, yes?

  30. 30.

    Alex S.

    I’m evil, I’d like to hear something like “The Tea Party is sponsored by mullah money!”

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    Charles and David Koch have been accused, and frequently convicted, of every possible crime this side of dog fighting & kiddy porn

    Investigation isn’t over yet.

  33. 33.

    Kola Noscopy

    @Emma:

    Jesus. There’s ice floating on the lava rivers of hell—I agree with KN.

    One day, Emma…perhaps soon…you shall agree with ALL I write.

    And then all shall be well with the universe, and at last you will know peace.

    Krishna Hari…or something…

  35. 35.

    Drag Me to H

    If it is true that these folks were just attending a wedding reception then that’s really cruel and deceptive to portray them all over the web as Wall Street executives. But once you sharpen the pitchforks…

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