Re: The real criminals
- From: "news" <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 07:19:48 GMT
The issue is BIGGER than that.
70 percent of ALL CRIME is done by white collar assisted by COPS/GOVERNMENT
"Joe S." <anon@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dp2eho0297o@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Example #1. A criminal robs a mom-and-pop convenience store and makes
off
> with $250.00.
>
> Example #2. A criminal robs 6,000 people and takes from them every penny
> of their life savings.
>
> Would you believe me if I told you that the guy in example #1 got 5 years
in
> the slammer while the guy in example #2 will never go to jail -- in fact,
> he'll never be charged with a single offense. I forget the name of the
guy
> in #1 but the guy in #2 is Ken Lay of Enron.
>
> Now, you tell me -- who is the REAL criminal? The fact is that if we
added
> up every dollar stolen by every crook in every jail in this country, the
> total would still not equal what Ken Lay stole from the employees of
Enron.
> So, why isn't he in jail?
>
> Oh, and did you know that Ken Lay and Enron executives make up the single
> largest group of contributors to GWBush's campaigns for governor of Texas
> and for president? And did you know that Bush flew around Texas on Enron
> corporate jets, free of charge, while he was campaigning for governor?
>
> What was that about "accessory to the crime?"
>
>
> QUOTE
>
> INTRODUCTION
>
> The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade
>
> Every year, the major business magazines put out their annual surveys of
big
> business in America.
>
> You have the Fortune 500, the Forbes 400, the Forbes Platinum 100, the
> International 800 -- among others.
>
> These lists rank big corporations by sales, assets, profits and market
> share. The point of these surveys is simple -- to identify and glorify the
> biggest and most profitable corporations.
>
> The point of the list contained in this report, The Top 100 Corporate
> Criminals of the Decade -- is to focus public attention on a wave of
> corporate criminality that has swamped prosecutors offices around the
> country.
>
> This is the dark underside of the marketplace that is given little
sustained
> attention and analysis by politicians and news outlets.
>
> To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, we used the most
> narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled
guilty
> or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined.
>
> 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).
>
> We did not try to assess and compare the damage committed by these
corporate
> criminals or by other corporate wrongdoers.
>
> There are millions of Americans who care about morality in the
marketplace.
>
> But few Americans realize that when they buy Exxon stock, or when they
fill
> up at an Exxon gas station, they are in fact supporting a criminal
> recidivist corporation.
>
> And few Americans realize that when the take a ride on a cruise ship owned
> by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, they are riding on a ship owned by a
> criminal recidivist corporation.
>
> Six corporations that made the list of the Top 100 Corporate Criminals
were
> criminal recidivist companies during the 1990s.
>
> In addition to Exxon and Royal Caribbean, Rockwell International,
> Warner-Lambert, Teledyne, and United Technologies each pled guilty to more
> than one crime during the 1990s.
>
>
>
> A few caveats about this report.
>
> Caveat one: Big companies that are criminally prosecuted represent only
the
> tip of a very large iceberg of corporate wrongdoing.
>
> For every company convicted of health care fraud, there are hundreds of
> others who get away with ripping off Medicare and Medicaid, or face only
> mild slap-on-the-wrist fines and civil penalties when caught.
>
> For every company convicted of polluting the nation's waterways, there are
> many others who are not prosecuted because their corporate defense lawyers
> are able to offer up a low-level employee to go to jail in exchange for a
> promise from prosecutors not to touch the company or high-level
executives.
>
> For every corporation convicted of bribery or of giving money directly to
a
> public official in violation of federal law, there are thousands who give
> money legally through political action committees to candidates and
> political parties. They profit from a system that effectively has
legalized
> bribery.
>
> For every corporation convicted of selling illegal pesticides, there are
> hundreds more who are not prosecuted because their lobbyists have worked
> their way in Washington to ensure that dangerous pesticides remain legal.
>
> For every corporation convicted of reckless homicide in the death of a
> worker, there are hundreds of others that don't even get investigated for
> reckless homicide when a worker is killed on the job. Only a few district
> attorneys across the country (Michael McCann, the DA in Milwaukee County,
> Wisconsin, being one) regularly investigate workplace deaths as homicides.
>
>
>
> Caveat two: Corporations define the laws under which they live.
>
> For example, the automobile industry over the past 30 years has worked its
> will on Congress to block legislation that would impose criminal sanctions
> on knowing and willful violations of the federal auto safety laws. Now, if
> an auto company is caught violating the law, and if the cops are not
asleep
> at the wheel, only a civil fine is imposed.
>
>
>
> Caveat three: Because of their immense political power, big corporations
> have the resources to defend themselves in courts of law and in the court
of
> public opinion.
>
> Few prosecutors are willing to subject themselves to the constant legal
and
> public relations barrage that a corporation's well connected and
high-priced
> legal talent can inflict.
>
> It is a testament to the tenacity of a few dedicated federal prosecutors
> that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, for example, was criminally convicted
of
> polluting the oceans.
>
> In the criminal prosecution of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines the company
was
> facing a team of two federal criminal prosecutors.
>
> To defend itself, Royal Caribbean hired Judson Starr and Jerry Block, both
> of whom have served as head of the Justice Department's Environmental
Crimes
> Section, and former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti.
>
> Also representing Royal Caribbean were former federal prosecutors Kenneth
C.
> Bass III, and Norman Moscowitz. Donald Carr of Winthrop & Stimson also
> joined the defense team.
>
> Hired on as experts on international law issues were former Attorney
General
> Eliot Richardson, University of Virginia law professor John Norton Moore,
> former State Department officials Terry Leitzell and Bernard Oxman, and
four
> retired senior admirals.
>
> As the case proceeded to trial, Royal Caribbean engaged in a massive
public
> relations campaign, taking out ads during the Super Bowl, putting former
> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrators on its board of
> directors, and donating thousands of dollars to environmental groups.
>
> Federal prosecutors overcame this legal and public relations barrage and
> convicted the company. But that was an unusual prosecution and unusually
> determined prosecutors.
>
>
>
> While the 1990s was a decade of booming markets and booming profits, it
was
> also a decade of rampant corporate criminality.
>
> There is an emerging consensus among corporate criminologists.
>
> And that emerging consensus is this: corporate crime and violence inflicts
> far more damage on society than all street crime combined.
>
> The FBI estimates, for example, that burglary and robbery -- street
> crimes -- costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.
>
> Compare this to the hundreds of billions of dollars stolen from Americans
as
> a result of corporate and white-collar fraud.
>
> Health care fraud alone costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a
year.
>
> The savings and loan fraud -- which former Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh
> called "the biggest white collar swindle in history" -- cost us anywhere
> from $300 billion to $500 billion.
>
> And then you have your lesser frauds: auto repair fraud, $40 billion a
year,
> securities fraud, $15 billion a year -- and on down the list.
>
> Recite this list of corporate frauds and people will immediately say to
you:
> but you can't compare street crime and corporate crime -- corporate crime
is
> not violent crime.
>
> Unfortunately, corporate crime is often violent crime.
>
> The FBI estimates that, 19,000 Americans are murdered every year.
>
> Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from
> occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of
> thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of
> pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital
> malpractice.
>
> These deaths are often the result of criminal recklessness. They are
> sometimes prosecuted as homicides or as criminal violations of federal
laws.
>
> And environmental crimes often result in death, disease and injury.
>
> In 1998, for example, a Tampa, Florida company and the company's plant
> manager were found guilty of violating a federal hazardous waste law.
Those
> illegal acts resulted in the deaths of two nine-year-old boys who were
> playing in a dumpster at the company's facility.
>
>
>
> This report is only a tiny step in an effort to fill a great void in
> corporate crime research.
>
> The Justice Department has the information and should get the budget to
> begin putting out yearly reports on corporate crime.
>
> Every year, the Justice Department puts out an annual report titled "Crime
> in the United States."
>
> But by "Crime in the United States," the Justice Department means "street
> crime in the United States."
>
> So, in "Crime in the United States" document you will read about burglary,
> robbery and theft. There is nothing in it about price-fixing, corporate
> fraud, pollution, or public corruption.
>
> A yearly Justice Department report on Corporate Crime in the United States
> is long overdue.
>
>
> THE TOP 100 CORPORATE CRIMINALS OF THE 1990's
>
> 1) F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal Fine: $500 million
> 12 Corporate Crime Reporter 21(1), May 24, 1999
>
> 2) Daiwa Bank Ltd.
> Type of Crime: Financial
> Criminal Fine: $340 million
> 10 Corporate Crime Reporter 9(3), March 4, 1996
>
> 3) BASF Aktiengesellschaft
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal Fine: $225 million
> 12 Corporate Crime Reporter 21(1), May 24, 1999
>
> 4) SGL Carbon Aktiengesellschaft (SGL AG)
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal Fine: $135 million
> 12 Corporate Crime Reporter 19(4), May 10, 1999
>
> 5) Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping
> Type of Crime: Environmental
> Criminal Fine: $125 million
> 5 Corporate Crime Reporter 11(3), March 18, 1991
>
> 6) UCAR International, Inc.
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal Fine: $110 million
> 12 Corporate Crime Reporter 15(6), April 13, 1998
>
> 7) Archer Daniels Midland
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal Fine: $100 million
> 10 Corporate Crime Reporter 40(1), October 21, 1996
>
> 8)(tie) Banker's Trust
> Type of Crime: Financial
> Criminal Fine: $60 million
> 12 Corporate Crime Reporter 11(1), March 15, 1999
>
> 8)(tie) Sears Bankruptcy Recovery Management Services
> Type of Crime: Fraud
> Criminal Fine: $60 million
> 13 Corporate Crime Reporter 7(1), February 15, 1999
>
> 10) Haarman & Reimer Corp.
> Type of Crime: Antitrust
> Criminal fine: $50 million
> 11 Corporate Crime Reporter 5(4), February 3, 1997
>
> . . . .
>
> go to this link for the full list of 100:
> http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/top100.html
>
> END QUOTE
>
>
.
- References:
- The real criminals
- From: Joe S.
- The real criminals
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