[corp-focus] RALPHS -- A CRIMINAL

[robert weissman]

RALPHS -- A CRIMINAL
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

If you listen long enough to the arguments of the corporate lobbyists 
and the white collar criminal defense bar, you could convince yourself 
that we should get rid of corporate criminal liability.
	They say that individuals -- not corporations -- commit crimes.
	They say that a corporation is a legal fiction.
	You can't put it in jail.
	They say that corporate criminal liability is based on vicarious 
liability -- if an employee during the course of his or her work commits 
a crime, that criminal activity is imputed to the corporation.
	They say that vicarious liability undermines the liberal principles 
that protect all of us from wrongful conviction.
	If our children engage in wrongdoing, that shouldn't mean that the 
parents should be sent to jail, should it?
	They say -- no mind, no crime.
	A corporation has no mind and therefore cannot have the requisite 
mental state to commit a crime.
	They say that if you convict a corporation, you are hurting innocent 
third parties -- workers, shareholders, consumers, suppliers.
	And their arguments are winning the day the courts of legal opinion -- 
if not public opinion.
	Up until a couple of years ago, if you were a major American 
corporation and you engaged in criminal wrongdoing, and some insider had 
the goods on the company and could convince a federal prosecutor to 
bring a case, there was a good chance that the corporation would be 
forced to plead guilty to a crime.
	Now, the odds are running the other way.
	The corporate defense lawyers have federal prosecutors on the run.
	So now, if you are a corporate insider, and you have the goods on 
corporate criminal wrongdoing -- the best that you can expect in most 
cases is a deferred prosecution agreement or a non prosecution agreement.
	These agreements allow the corporation to clean house, fire a few 
"rogue" employees, cooperate with federal authorities in putting the 
individual wrongdoers behind bars, admit no corporate wrongdoing -- and 
move on to the next crime.
	The most recent case came around just last week when the federal 
government said it would not criminally prosecute Boeing for its hiring 
of the former Air Force acquisitions chief Darleen A. Druyun, by its 
then CFO, Michael Sears, and its handling of competitors' information in 
connection with the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program and 
certain NASA launch services contracts.
	Under the deal cut with the federal government, Boeing agreed to pay 
$615 million and the United States agreed not to bring criminal charges 
related to the conduct in part because "the company is fully cooperating 
with the government's investigation."
	Now, would the federal government make a similar deal with, say, the 
mafia?
	Imagine reading the following: "Under a deal cut with the federal 
government, the mob agreed to pay $615 million and the United States 
agreed not to bring criminal charges related to the conduct in part 
because 'the mob is fully cooperating with the government's 
investigation.'"
	We didn't see the argument against corporate criminal liability being 
made by the Chamber of Commerce or the white collar bar when the feds 
were cracking down on the mob.
	They didn't say -- go after the individual mob bosses, but forget the 
enterprise.
	In fact, the FBI and the Justice Department were so concerned about mob 
"enterprise liability" as they called it, that they got passed through 
the Congress a special law to help them deal with the problem -- it's 
called RICO -- the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization Act.
	Putting away individuals is not enough.
	The corporate culture poisons the system.
	You have to deal with the organization, the enterprise, the 
corporation, the mob.
	You would get the impression from listening to the onslaught of 
propaganda emanating from the big corporate law firms that corporations 
are innocent vessels that on the whole do good -- it's the corrupt 
individuals who are evil.
	Put them behind bars. Let the corporation do its good work.
	In fact, corporate crime and violence has inflicted far more damage on 
society than all individual wrongdoing combined.
	And that's why's its important to preserve corporate criminal liability.
	The criminal law is the big stick in society's bag of tricks for 
controlling immoral, illegal and anti-social behavior.
	So, why not use it against society's most dangerous criminals?
	It's important to be able say -- with legal justification -- that those 
who spend billions on public relations campaigns to make themselves look 
good -- J'accuse -- you are a criminal.
	Exxon is a criminal.
	ADM is a criminal.
	Genentech is a criminal.
	Chevron is a criminal.
	Coors is a criminal.
	Tyson is a criminal.
	GE is a criminal.
	Teledyne is a criminal.
	All convicted of crimes in the 1990s, before the anti-corporate crime 
cult took hold of our minds and legal system.
	Not to say that all prosecutors are drinking the Kool-Aid.
	Just as of a couple of days ago, we can say with authority:
	Ralphs is a criminal.
	Late last Friday, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles said that Ralphs 
Grocery Company, the owner of about 300 supermarkets across Southern 
California will plead guilty to criminal charges that it covertly 
rehired hundreds of locked-out workers under false names and Social 
Security numbers during its 2003-2004 lockout of approximately 19,000 
Ralphs grocery clerks and meat cutters.
	Ralphs is a unit of Kroger.
	Ralphs will pay $70 million in criminal fines and compensation to 
Ralphs' grocery workers and the seven union locals that represent the 
workers.
	The plea agreement, if approved, would impose certain obligations on 
Ralphs and its corporate parent, Kroger.
	Ralphs will be placed on corporate probation for three years, during 
which time it will be required to establish court-supervised training 
and compliance programs.
	Ralphs and Kroger also will fully cooperate with the government in its 
continuing investigation.
	But most importantly, it's important to be able to say it:
	Ralphs -- a criminal.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime 
Reporter, <http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com>. Robert Weissman is 
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, 
<http://www.multinationalmonitor.org>. Mokhiber and Weissman  are co 
authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of 
Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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