The Criminal Element

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

The Criminal Element
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The criminal element has seeped deep into every nook and cranny of
American society.
     
Forget about the underworld -- these crooks dominate every aspect of
our market, culture, and politics.
     
They cast a deep dark shadow over life in turn of the century
America.
     
We buy gas from them (Exxon, Chevron, Unocal).
     
We take pictures with their cameras and film (Eastman Kodak).
     
We drink their beer (Coors).
     
We buy insurance from them to guard against financial catastrophe if
we get sick (Blue Cross Blue Shield).
     
And then when we get sick, we buy pharmaceuticals from them (Pfizer,
Warner Lambert, Ortho Pharmaceuticals).
     
We do our laundry washers and dryers from them (General Electric).
     
We vacation with them (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines).
     
We buy our food from them (Archer Daniels Midland, Southland, Tyson
Foods, U.S. Sugar).
     
We drive with them (Hyundai) and fly with them (Korean Air Lines).
     
All of these companies and more turned up on Corporate Crime
Reporter's list of the Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, released
this past week at a news conference at the National Press Club.
     
Standing before a roomful of reporters and cameras (including a
C-Span camera which took us live to our TV nation), we made the following
points:
     
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 releasing The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade,
on the other hand, was to focus public attention on the pervasive
criminality that has corrupted the marketplace and 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. And still,
with the most narrow and conservative of definitions of corporate crime,
we came up with society's most powerful actors.
     
Six corporations that made the list of the Top 100 Corporate
Criminals were criminal recidivist companies during the 1990s.
     
Exxon, Royal Caribbean, Rockwell International, Warner-Lambert,
Teledyne, and United Technologies each pled guilty to more than one crime
during the 1990s.
     
And we warned that we in no way imply that these corporations are in
any way the worst or have committed the most egregious crimes.
     
We did not try to assess and compare the damage committed by these
corporate criminals or by other corporate wrongdoers.
     
We warned that 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.
     
We pointed out that corporations define the laws under which they
live.
     
An argument can be made that the most egregious wrongful corporate
acts -- the genetic engineering of the food supply, or the systematic
pollution of the nation's air and waterways, or the bribery by corporate
criminals of the political parties -- are totally legal.
     
For your convenience, we print here the list of 100 crooks that fall
well within a very conservative definition of criminality.
     
Carry this list wherever you go, and when the subject turns to crime,
feel free to pull out the list and lash the criminal element.


THE TOP 100 CORPORATE CRIMINALS OF THE 1990S

1) F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $500 million

2) Daiwa Bank Ltd.
Type of Crime: Financial
Criminal Fine: $340 million

3) BASF Aktiengesellschaft
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $225 million

4) SGL Carbon Aktiengesellschaft (SGL AG) 
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $135 million

5) Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $125 million

6) UCAR International, Inc. 
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $110 million

7) Archer Daniels Midland 
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $100 million

8)(tie) Banker's Trust
Type of Crime: Financial
Criminal Fine: $60 million

8)(tie) Sears Bankruptcy Recovery Management Services
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $60 million

10) Haarman & Reimer Corp.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal fine: $50 million

11) Louisiana-Pacific Corporation 
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $37 million

12) Hoechst AG
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $36 million

13) Damon Clinical Laboratories, Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $35.2 million

14) C.R. Bard Inc.
Type of Crime: Food and drug
Criminal Fine: $30.9 million
7 Corporate Crime Reporter 41(1), October 25, 1993

15) Genentech Inc.
Type of Crime: Food and drug
Criminal Fine: $30 million

16) Nippon Gohsei
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $21 million

17)(tie) Pfizer Inc.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $20 million

17)(tie) Summitville Consolidated Mining Co. Inc. 
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $20 million
10 Corporate Crime Reporter 20(3) May 20, 1996

19)(tie) Lucas Western Inc.
Type of Crime: False Statements
Criminal Fine: $18.5 million
9 Corporate Crime Reporter 4(6), January 30, 1995

19)(tie) Rockwell International Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $18.5 million

21) Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $18 million

22) Teledyne Industries Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $17.5 million

23) Northrop
Type of Crime: False statements
Criminal Fine: $17 million

24) Litton Applied Technology Division (ATD) and 
Litton Systems Canada (LSL) 
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $16.5 million

25) Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $15 million

26) Eastman Chemical Company
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $11 million

27) Copley Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Type of Crime: Food and drug
Criminal Fine: $10.65 million

28) Lonza AG
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $10.5 million

29) Kimberly Home Health Care Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $10.08 million

30)(tie) Ajinomoto Co. Inc.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $10 million

30)(tie) Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)
Type of Crime: Financial
Criminal Fine: $10 million

30)(tie) Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $10 million

30)(tie) Warner-Lambert Company
Type of Crime: Food and drug
Criminal Fine: $10 million

34) General Electric 
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $9.5 million

35)(tie) Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $9 million

35)(tie) Showa Denko Carbon
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $9 million

37) IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd.
Type of Crime: Illegal exports
Criminal Fine: $8.5 million

38) Empire Sanitary Landfill Inc. 
Type of crime: Campaign finance
Criminal fine: $8 million

39)(tie) Colonial Pipeline Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $7 million

39)(tie) Eklof Marine Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $7 million

41)(tie) Chevron    
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $6.5 million

41)(tie) Rockwell International Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $6.5 million

43) Tokai Carbon Ltd. Co. 
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $6 million

44)(tie) Allied Clinical Laboratories, Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $5 million

44)(tie) Northern Brands International Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $5 million

44)(tie) Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
Type of Crime: Obstruction of justice
Criminal Fine: $5 million

44)(tie) Unisys
Type of Crime: Bribery
Criminal Fine: $5 million     

44)(tie) Georgia Pacific Corporation
Type of Crime: Tax evasion
Criminal Fine: $5 million
5 Corporate Crime Reporter 38(8), October 7, 1991

49) Kanzaki Specialty Papers Inc.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $4.5 million

50) ConAgra Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $4.4 million

51) Ryland Mortgage Company
Type of Crime: Financial
Criminal Fine: $4.2 million

52)(tie) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $4 million

52)(tie) Borden Inc.
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $4 million

52)(tie) Dexter Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $4 million

52)(tie) Southland Corporation
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $4 million

52)(tie) Teledyne Industries Inc.
Type of Crime: Illegal exports
Criminal Fine: $4 million

52)(tie) Tyson Foods Inc.
Type of Crime: Public corruption
Criminal Fine: $4 million

58)(tie) Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA)
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3.75 million

58)(tie) Costain Coal Inc.
Type of Crime: Worker Death
Criminal Fine: $3.75 million

58)(tie) United States Sugar Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3.75 million

61) Saybolt, Inc., Saybolt North America
Type of Crime: Environmental, bribery
Criminal Fine: $3.4 million

62)(tie) Bristol-Myers Squibb
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3 million

62)(tie) Chemical Waste Management Inc. 
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3 million

62)(tie) Ketchikan Pulp Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3 million

62)(tie) United Technologies Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3 million

62)(tie) Warner-Lambert Inc.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $3 million

67)(tie) Arizona Chemical Co. Inc.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2.5 million

67)(tie) Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail)
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2.5 million

69) International Paper 
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2.2 million

70)(tie) Consolidated Edison Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2 million 

70)(tie) Crop Growers Corporation
Type of Crime: Campaign finance
Criminal fine: $2 million

70)(tie) E-Systems Inc.
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $2 million

70)(tie) HAL Beheer BV
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2 million

70)(tie) John Morrell and Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $2 million

70)(tie) United Technologies Corporation
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $2 million

76) Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi International Corporation
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $1.8 million

77)(tie) Blue Shield of California
Type of Crime: Fraud
Criminal Fine: $1.5 million

77)(tie) Browning-Ferris Inc. 
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $1.5 million

77)(tie) Odwalla Inc.
Type of Crime: Food and drug
Criminal Fine: $1.5 million

77)(tie) Teledyne Inc.
Type of Crime: False statements
Criminal Fine: $1.5 million

77)(tie) Unocal Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $1.5 million

82)(tie) Doyon Drilling Inc.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $1 million

82)(tie) Eastman Kodak
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $1 million

82)(tie) Case Corporation
Type of Crime: Illegal exports
Criminal Fine: $1 million

85) Marathon Oil
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $900,000

86) Hyundai Motor Company
Type of Crime: Campaign finance
Criminal  Fine: $600,000

87)(tie) Baxter International Inc.
Type of Crime: Illegal Boycott
Criminal Fine: $500,000

87)(tie) Bethship-Sabine Yard
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $500,000

87(tie) Palm Beach Cruises
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $500,000

87)(tie) Princess Cruises Inc.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $500,000

91)(tie) Cerestar Bioproducts BV
Type of Crime: Antitrust
Criminal Fine: $400,000

91)(tie) Sun-Land Products of California
Type of Crime: Campaign finance
Criminal Fine: $400,000

93)(tie) American Cyanamid
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $250,000

93)(tie) Korean Air Lines
Type of Crime: Campaign finance
Criminal Fine: $250,000

93)(tie) Regency Cruises Inc.
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $250,000

96)(tie) Adolph Coors Company
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $200,000

96)(tie) Andrew and Williamson Sales Co.
Type of crime: Food and drug
Criminal fine: $200,000 

96)(tie) Daewoo International (America) Corporation 
Type of Fine: Campaign finance
Criminal Fine: $200,000 

96)(tie) Exxon Corporation
Type of Crime: Environmental
Criminal Fine: $200,000

100) Samsung America Inc.
Type of Crime: Campaign finance
Criminal Fine: $150,000


Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
Hunt for Mega Profits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org)

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman.

-----------------------------------------------------

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