The magazine unearthed a trove of documents and anecdotes leading to allegations that the company engaged in all sorts of sleazy and illegal activities. It's sure to give opponents of owners David and Charles Koch plenty to complain about. The story is incredibly thorough and well-researched, and it's worth reading. Here are some bullet points of the biggest discoveries the magazine made:
-Koch's compliance officer and ethics manager discovered that the company had bribed officials in the French city Arles for contracts in 2008. Eventually investigators discovered that Koch had bribed people in six countries. The compliance officer was eventually fired.
-The company has sold millions of dollars' worth of equipment to Iran through subsidiaries in foreign countries to work around an American trade ban. A spokeswoman told Bloomberg that all Koch properties have since quit doing business with the country.
-Koch's oil business stole oil from federal land by mismeasuring the crude they took. This was known as the "Koch Method."
-A Texas butane pipeline that Koch owned was not maintained properly, resulting in the death of two teenagers. The National Transportation Safety Board found that Koch Pipeline Co. had known the line was corroded but didn't fix it.
-Koch pinned regular bribing of companies in Algeria, Egypt, India, Morocco, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia on one employee. He sued after being fired, and a court in France found that he hadn't acted alone.
-The company told employees that its two core values were "integrity" and "compliance." One employee in a German-owned subsidiary began opposing bidding on projects in Iran. He was forced out. He told the magazine, "Everything Koch stood for was a lie."
-In the 1980s, Koch Oil stole 1.95 million barrels of oil from American Indian land, "shortchanging Indian families."
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crosswind-You're right-people shouldn't be surprised at corporate dishonesty.....they should be outraged.
Corporate dishonesty shouldn't surprise anyone. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.was fined 2 million by the Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who said, “Liberty Mutual’s conduct was reprehensible, illegally increasing insurance premiums for consumers and businesses and undermining the free market,” “The company brazenly broke the law, using underhanded, unethical and illegal methods to rip off its customers.
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