Conservatives - some of the nastiest people on earth

Koch Industries Exposed for Bribery, Secret Iran Sales and More

Nacktman (noreply@blogger.com)

Thursday, September 05, 2013, 1:15 pm

by Rebekah Wilce

(You can read much more of this article by clicking on the title above.)

Late Sunday night, after a flurry of PR flack-directed prebuttals that had eyebrows arching and anticipation building, Bloomberg Markets Magazine released an epic exposé about Koch Industries' misdeeds during the last three decades.

Fifteen Bloomberg journalists from around the world contributed to the story.
What did they uncover?

Bribery

Bloomberg reports that employees of a Koch Industries unit in France called Koch-Glitsch made "improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director." The activity was uncovered in May 2008 by a Koch Industries compliance officer, Ludmila Egorova-Farines, who was hired to investigate allegations the French unit had been awarding improper salary increases -- not to investigate bribery.

Sales to Iran

Bloomberg also reports that Koch Industries "sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism." U.S. companies have been banned from trading with Iran since 1995, but Koch made sales through its foreign subsidiaries as recently as 2007.

Falsifying Benzene Emissions

In April 2001, the Koch Petroleum Group (now Flint Hills Resources) pled guilty to a felony charge of lying to the government about benzene emissions from its Corpus Christi, Texas plant. Benzene can cause Leukemia and other cancer. Koch earned $176 million in profit from the plant in 1995. It would have cost $7 million to comply with the benzene emission regulation.

Stealing Oil on Indian Land

In May 1989, estranged Koch brother Bill, twin brother of David, told the Senate special committee on investigations of a scheme to steal oil on Indian land. "According to data the committee compiled, Koch took 1.95 million barrels of oil it didn't pay for from 1986 to 1988.

Deadly Butane Explosion

In August 1996, Danny Smalley watched his 17 year old daughter Danielle and her friend Jason Stone get burned alive in a cloud of ignited butane gas that had leaked from a corroded Koch Industries pipeline.

Koch and the American Legislative Exchange Council

Given the Kochs' history of environmental violations and efforts to skirt U.S. law, it is little wonder they have funded a broad array of organizations that seek to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, deny climate science that justifies many environmental regulations, and otherwise deregulate the economy in ways that benefit Koch Industries' bottom line.