Corporate Corruption
Apple CEO defends multi-billion-dollar tax dodge
By Andre Damon, 22 May 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook used his appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to call for a sharp reduction in corporate taxes.
White House seeks to shorten sentence of former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling
By Andre Damon, 10 May 2013
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal with former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling that would result in a 10-year sentence reduction.
JPMorgan and the criminalization of the US ruling class
By Barry Grey, 18 March 2013
The financial malefactors have been rewarded with ever greater public funds to subsidize record profits, executive bonuses and stock prices
Senate report documents fraud and lawbreaking by JPMorgan Chase
By Barry Grey, 16 March 2013
The report demonstrates that nothing has changed on Wall Street since the financial meltdown that was triggered by rampant speculation and illegality on the part of the banks.
Chevron fined for “willful violations” in California refinery fire
By Henry Allan, 13 February 2013
Chevron was fined $963,200 by Cal/OSHA for state safety standard violations related to the August 6, 2012, fire at its Richmond, California, refinery.
Bank scandals and the case for public ownership
By Nick Beams, 8 February 2013
Calls for greater regulation of the banks ignore the incestuous relationships between the finance houses and the regulators that are supposed to be overseeing them.
The stock market bubble
By Andre Damon, 1 February 2013
In the fifth year of the economic depression, and amid signs of the worst global slowdown since 2008, world stock markets are booming the fastest since the late 1990s.
Johnson & Johnson knowingly sold faulty hip implants
By Naomi Spencer, 25 January 2013
Although the company was aware that 40 percent of metal hip replacements would fail in five years, it sold the devices anyway.
The Libor swindle
By Andre Damon, 22 December 2012
Not only has the Libor swindle exposed the criminality of the banks, it has laid bare the nexus of corruption and complicity involving governments and financial regulators the world over.
Above the law
By Barry Grey, 14 December 2012
The financial robber barons of today are a law unto themselves.
BP settles for $4.5 billion in federal criminal charges
By Bryan Dyne, 17 November 2012
BP has reached a settlement on all criminal claims with the US Department of Justice and on all securities claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
US suit vs. Bank of America: No criminal charges despite “spectacularly brazen” fraud
By Barry Grey, 27 October 2012
Not a single high-level banker has been prosecuted, let alone jailed, since the Wall Street crash of September 2008.
Morgan Stanley fine upheld in electricity price-fixing scam
By A. Woodson, 18 October 2012
A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan has upheld a $4.8 million fine against Morgan Stanley for creating a derivatives deal.
US to drop criminal probe of MF Global
By Barry Grey, 21 August 2012
In the figure of former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, key aspects of the criminalization of the US ruling elite and the thoroughgoing corruption of its political system come together.
JPMorgan Chase investigated for manipulating California energy market
By Oliver Richards, 23 July 2012
The California Independent Systems Operator (CalISO) has alleged that JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated the state’s energy market, resulting in at least $73 million in improper payments.
Allegations of government collusion in Libor fixing raised in UK Parliament
By Christopher Marsden, 6 July 2012
The declaration by chairman Andrew Tyrie that some of what Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond said in testimony to the parliamentary Treasury Committee seemed “implausible” ranks as a masterpiece of understatement.
Libor scandal exposes banks’ rigging of global rates
By Barry Grey, 6 July 2012
Rotting in its own criminality, the capitalist financial system produces ever more powerful arguments for its expropriation and reconstitution under public ownership and democratic control.
The bankers rule: Jamie Dimon at the US Senate
By David Walsh, 16 June 2012
The members of the Senate Banking Committee treated JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon with awe and reverence.
Documents in US foreclosure settlement highlight lawlessness of the banks
By Barry Grey, 16 March 2012
On Monday, the settlement between five major US banks and the federal and state governments of foreclosure-related fraud charges was filed in federal district court in Washington DC.
An insider’s view of Wall Street criminality
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey, 15 March 2012
Greg Smith, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, announced his resignation Wednesday in an op-ed piece public in the New York Times, denouncing the bank's “toxic” culture of avarice and fraud.
A4e scandal highlights looting of UK social spending by private companies
By Julie Hyland, 1 March 2012
The scandal surrounding the welfare-to-work firm A4e (Action for Employment) has again exposed how large swathes of public funds have been handed over to private corporations, under both Labour and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
Corzine resigns from MF Global amid mounting probes
By Bill Van Auken, 5 November 2011
Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey Democratic senator and governor, resigned as CEO of MF Global, amid multiple probes into possible criminal violations at the bankrupt investment firm.
Former billionaire hedge fund manager convicted of insider trading
By Bill Van Auken, 13 May 2011
The conviction of former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam on insider trading charges does not even touch upon the rampant financial swindling that produced the economic meltdown of 2008.
Madoff lawsuits charge JPMorgan and HSBC with complicity in Ponzi scheme
By Andre Damon, 18 December 2010
Two years after the arrest of Bernard Madoff, ample evidence has emerged that a number of major financial institutions profited from and knowingly facilitated his Ponzi scheme.
First arrest in high-profile insider trading investigation
By Andre Damon, 27 November 2010
The US government has arrested an investment research firm employee in the first charge related to an ongoing federal insider trading investigation.
Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal of Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling
By Joe Kishore, 16 October 2009
The decision by the US high court to hear the Skilling case indicates that it is considering curtailing use of the “honest services” law to prosecute corporate fraud.
The Enron verdicts: corruption and American capitalism
By Joe Kay, 29 May 2006
The guilty verdicts handed down by a Houston jury last week against former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling provide an opportunity to evaluate the significance of the company’s rise and fall within the context of American capitalism.
Former CFO testifies in Enron case
By Joe Kay, 10 March 2006
Former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow continued testimony on Thursday in the trial of the company’s former CEO Ken Lay and former president Jeffrey Skilling. Fastow testified that Lay and Skilling were personally involved in the various illegal activities, accounting manipulations, and fraudulent statements for which Enron has become notorious.
Enron tapes expose blatant criminality of corporate America
By Rafael Azul, 15 June 2004
The recent release of transcripts of taped conversations among Enron electricity traders in the summer of 2001 reveals that company insiders not only knew they were stealing from California and other states, but gloated about it. The partial release of thousands of hours of tapes is a powerful indictment of the energy companies that looted California and Washington of close to $11 billion, with the support and assistance of government officials.
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