Transnational corporations have a long and dark history of condoning tyrannical governments. ibid.
In one week alone fifty-seven US corporations were fined for trading with official enemies of the United States. ibid.
Several years after the Walmart controversy, Kathie Lee handbags were still being made in China by workers paid three cents an hour. ibid.
Top Enron executives made £1.1 billion insider trading Enron stock knowing the company was going to fail. Enron employees not only lost their jobs, they lost their pensions. Enron gave the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican Party $2.3 million in hard and soft campaign contributions in 2000. Mike Ruppert, The Truth & Lies of 9/11
Who was responsible for the downfall of Enron? Only a few years ago Enron was the nation’s seventh largest corporation. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 2005, written McLean & Elkind & Gibney
Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling had built their own plush state rooms. They were known as the smartest guys in the room. Captains of a ship too powerful to go down. ibid.
News of shredding at Enron raised more questions. ibid.
20,000 employees had lost their jobs. ibid.
In Washington Lay became part of a new crusade to liberate businessmen from the rules and regulations of government. ibid.
George Bush senior helped secure billions in government subsidies for Enron International. ibid.
In 1987 two oil traders made bets for Enron on whether the price of oil would rise or fall ... Enron Oil always seemed to win. ibid.
At the board meeting the auditors told Lay that [Louis] Borget and his traders were manipulating earnings, destroying daily trading records and probably gambling way beyond their limits. ibid.
Lay encouraged his traders to gamble more. ibid.
Enron would become a kind of stock market for natural gas ... Transform energy into financial instruments that could be traded like stocks and bonds. ibid.
Market to market accounting allowed Enron to book future potential profits on the very day the deal was signed. ibid.
‘The insiders had sold off a billion dollars of their stock in the preceding several months.’ ibid. Bill Lerach, attorney for shareholders
Though Lou Pai flew away from Enron with $250,000,000 the divisions he left behind lost a total of nearly $1,000,000,000 but Enron managed to disguise that fact. ibid.
Enron mounted a campaign to capture the hearts and minds of stock analysts. ibid.
The game was called Pump and Dump. Top execs would push the stock price up and then cash in their multi-million dollar options. ibid.
Enron had vast natural gas operations all over the world. They had cost billions to build and most were performing terribly. ibid.
The analysts weren’t analysing at all; they were willing to believe virtually anything Enron told them. ibid.
‘Enron has created the market to buy and sell bandwidth like a commodity. Ask why.’ ibid. Enron advert
Enron’s stock soared 34% in two days. ibid.
When Enron announced its latest plan to trade weather, people wondered whether it was good science or science fiction. ibid.
[Andrew] Fastow had to figure out a way to keep the stock price up by hiding the fact that Enron was thirty billion dollars in debt. ibid.
Traders soon discovered that by shutting down power plants they could create artificial shortages that would push prices even higher. ibid.
The year-long energy crisis would cost the state of California thirty billion dollars. ibid.
Ken Lay did have easy access to the Bush administration. ibid.
Jeff Skilling abruptly resigns. (Corporation & Corruption & Greed & Energy & Gas & Electricity & Market & Accounting & Stocks & Regulation & Profit) ibid.
The SEC launched an investigation when the Wall Street Journal published articles revealing Fastow’s murky deals. Enron announced massive financial restatements. ibid.
Enron’s accounting firm Arthur Anderson had begun destroying its Enron files. On October 23rd Anderson shredded more than one ton of paper. ibid.
Enron declared bankruptcy. ibid.
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. Abraham Lincoln
Corporate crime poses a significant threat to the welfare of the community. Given the pervasive presence of corporations in a wide range of activities in our society, and the impact of their actions on a much wider group of people than are affected by individual action, the potential for both economic and physical harm caused by a corporation is great. Law Reform Commission of New South Wales: 2001
When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money. Alice Adams
At the moment we have leaders in this country who care more about the short-term profits of big corporations than they do about the long-term well-being of the average working man and woman. R T Buffenbarger, IAM 20th September 2004
Business knows no pity, and cares for justice only when justice is seen to be better policy. If it had power to control the elements, it would grasp in its iron clutches the waters, sunshine and air and resell them by measure, and at exorbitant prices to the millions of famished men, women and children. W A Duncan, cited Cherokee Advocate 1892
To the fervent proponents of ruthless corporate capitalism I say: make a millionaire CEO live as a poor sweatshop worker in Indonesia for one month and then ask him about the merits of the world economic system. Vassilis Epaminondou
Our country has been ravaged and stolen by industrial pirates and yet, learned judges have decreed that it was ‘legal’ ... Whatever the king has done, the courtiers have most humbly considered right and the guards and men-at-arms been ready to see that the slaves did not rebel against it all. Joseph Ettor, IWW organizer, Industrial Unionism: The Road to Freedom
The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization. Ed Havaich, GE worker and Union member
Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face – from stagnant wages and unaffordable health care to overconsumption and global warming ... With all this happening, why do we not read more about the pervasiveness of corporate power? In large part because even the ‘Fourth Estate’, our media establishment, is majority owned by a handful of mega-corporations. Marjorie Kelly, How Popular Movements Can Confront Corporate Power And Win
Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress and touches even the ermine of the bench. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. National Platform of Populist Party, 1892
The 100 corporate criminals fell into 14 categories of crime: Environmental (38), antitrust (20), fraud (13), campaign finance (7), food and drug (6), financial crimes (4), false statements (3), illegal exports (3), illegal boycott (1), worker death (1), bribery (1), obstruction of justice (1) public corruption (1), and tax evasion (1). Russell Mokhiber, Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade
Now suppose a corporation engages in illegal activity while operating a coal mine. And that illegal activity leads to the death of 29 of its workers.
Here’s another sure bet – that corporation will not be convicted of a crime. And it will not be punished.
The reality is that we live in a two-tier criminal justice system in America, with one level for corporations and one for living, breathing humans.
It’s a system that undermines deterrence and allows corporate criminals to inflict their damage – pollution, corruption, fraud, worker and consumer injury and death – unchecked.
The coal mine corporation is a real one, Massey Energy. In April 2010, a huge explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers. Reuters online article Russell Mokhiber 30th April 2013