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Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales

hazlnut

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[h=1]Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales[/h]
In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.“I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”
She immediately notified her supervisors in the U.S. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.
By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France.
“Those activities constitute violations of criminal law,” Koch Industries wrote in a Dec. 8, 2008, letter giving details of its findings. The letter was made public in a civil court ruling in France in September 2010; the document has never before been reported by the media.


Will Fox cover this story?

Will the Teabaggers care that their financial benefactors are corrupt bastards do deals with Iran?

This is the definition of hypocrisy. These turkey's don't like Government regulation, AND they also don't care for a level playing field.
 
No surprise at all.. and of course they will get away with it because of who they are.
 
Wait, what? A company self regulates and reports illegal activity to the authorities as soon as it finds out and you're being critical? As though somehow a parent company should be instantaneously aware of every thing a subsidiary does? Could you drop the partisanship for the moment to actually view reality.
 
Wait, what? A company self regulates and reports illegal activity to the authorities as soon as it finds out and you're being critical? As though somehow a parent company should be instantaneously aware of every thing a subsidiary does? Could you drop the partisanship for the moment to actually view reality.

What is disturbing is that they basically fired a whistleblower.

Egorova-Farines wasn’t rewarded for bringing the illicit payments to the company’s attention. Her superiors removed her from the inquiry in August 2008 and fired her in June 2009, calling her incompetent, even after Koch’s investigators substantiated her findings. She sued Koch-Glitsch in France for wrongful termination.
 
What is disturbing is that they basically fired a whistleblower.

Yes, but that was still the actions of the subsidiary. The subsidiary has acted wrongly, but to try and paint the entire company as guilty in this is ridiculous.
 
Yes, but that was still the actions of the subsidiary. The subsidiary has acted wrongly, but to try and paint the entire company as guilty in this is ridiculous.

If it was an isolated incident.. then sure... but Koch industries and its subsidiaries have been busted time and time again over the decades for illegal activities not to mention being masters at getting government subsidies...

And the Koch Brothers are know to be very involved in all parts of their empire, so using the excuse it was a subsidiary is a load of ...
 
If it was an isolated incident.. then sure... but Koch industries and its subsidiaries have been busted time and time again over the decades for illegal activities not to mention being masters at getting government subsidies...

And the Koch Brothers are know to be very involved in all parts of their empire, so using the excuse it was a subsidiary is a load of ...

You must be pissed off as hell at GM and Solyndra.
 
If it was an isolated incident.. then sure... but Koch industries and its subsidiaries have been busted time and time again over the decades for illegal activities not to mention being masters at getting government subsidies...

And the Koch Brothers are know to be very involved in all parts of their empire, so using the excuse it was a subsidiary is a load of ...

So why did they have an investigation if they already knew about it?
 
What is disturbing is that they basically fired a whistleblower.

The quote you offered gave absolutely NO specifics as to why this person was let go. For all you know the investigation that the parent company launched uncovered more serious crimes that this person was covering up...

What you are attempting here is as dishonest as Hazelnut's original smear in the opening post.

j-mac
 
So why did they have an investigation if they already knew about it?

I don't alway's if ever agree with you spud, but thank you for being absolutely honest about this thread. I know you despise the Koch Bros. and would love nothing more than to see them doing something that could be legitimately used against them, but to be honest and admit this isn't it, shows an honesty in debate, and you should be commended for it.

j-mac
 
No surprise at all.. and of course they will get away with it because of who they are.

Ken Lay got caught, convicted, and ALMOST went to jail.

He died at his ski condo. One can only hope it was painful.
 
Yes, but that was still the actions of the subsidiary. The subsidiary has acted wrongly, but to try and paint the entire company as guilty in this is ridiculous.

It's called trickle down integrity.

The two clowns at the top are rotten to the core and therefore so is every branch of their company.
 
there ya have it folks... it's bad and evil for companies to self regulate.


I think hyperpartisanship causes brain damage... or maybe brain damage causes hyperpartisanship
 
there ya have it folks... it's bad and evil for companies to self regulate.

A++

You get a gold star.

Except change evil to 'ANY'... companies should NEVER self-regulate.

However...

Industries can be allowed to a LIMITED amount of self-regulation. (e.g. MPAA)
 
As usual, self regulation means no regulation. The Koch Bros. are the whacko Jonh Birch Society from the 60s and 70s which they've rebranded as the Tea Party. You just can't make this sh*t up.
 
This thread needs more FOX News bashing dontcha think?
 
Yes, but that was still the actions of the subsidiary. The subsidiary has acted wrongly, but to try and paint the entire company as guilty in this is ridiculous.

Hm...I wonder...could a company set up a subsidiary to conduct illegal activities and take the fall should it get caught?
 
Hm...I wonder...could a company set up a subsidiary to conduct illegal activities and take the fall should it get caught?

:lol::lol:

If they did that, they wouldn't have investigated themselves.

Does common sense just vanish when people hear the Koch name or something?
 
A++

You get a gold star.

Except change evil to 'ANY'... companies should NEVER self-regulate.

However...

Industries can be allowed to a LIMITED amount of self-regulation. (e.g. MPAA)

So if a company finds illegal activity, they should just let it happen until the authorities find it? :lol:
 
So if a company finds illegal activity, they should just let it happen until the authorities find it? :lol:

Sssshhhhh, you're applying logic and common sense to hazl's argument. How dare you ruin our fun! It's so much more fun to watch him dig a bigger hole with every post he makes. His arguments are insane 99% of the time and more than half bring up some "FOX News conspiracy" when FOX News isn't a part of the story. If it isn't then it's them evil 'teabaggers', 'republicons' and every other cute little twist on words he likes to use on a regular basis. Oh wait, he got in two of those digs in the OP! :lol:

His arguments are so weak that I've had to replace two keyboards from spitting my drink on them when reading his dribble. You can't blame his arguments for being weak and void of common sense as he is just following his playbook.
 
This thread needs more FOX News bashing dontcha think?

FOX does a pretty good job of bashing themselves. FOX, the news channel of those who do not want to think for themselves. If FOX did not exist, Jon Stewart would have nothing to make fun of.

Was that enough or do I need to come up with more?
 
FOX does a pretty good job of bashing themselves. FOX, the news channel of those who do not want to think for themselves. If FOX did not exist, Jon Stewart would have nothing to make fun of.

Was that enough or do I need to come up with more?

Always good for a laugh Redress, always! :D
 
What is disturbing is that they basically fired a whistleblower.

No, they fired an incompetent whistle blower. Egorova-Farines sued the Koch subsidiary for wrongful termination and lost. The court dismissed her case and ordered her to pay the Koch subsidiary's legal fees.

I wonder why Bloomberg didn't do an article on G.E., who was charged with the same offense by the Securities and Exchange Commission??? Could it be that they ignored G.E. because they are an Obama favorite child ???

Washington, D.C., July 27, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged General Electric Company with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its involvement in a $3.6 million kickback scheme with Iraqi government agencies to win contracts to supply medical equipment and water purification equipment.

The SEC alleges that two GE subsidiaries — along with two other subsidiaries of public companies that have since been acquired by GE — made illegal kickback payments in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies, and services to the Iraqi Health Ministry or the Iraqi Oil Ministry in order to obtain valuable contracts under the U.N. Oil for Food Program.
Press Release: SEC Charges General Electric and Two Subsidiaries with FCPA Violations; 2010-133; July 27, 2010
 
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