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 | H&M Responds Slowly to Bangladesh Factory Collapse Killing 1,100
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
May 19th, 2013
H&M (Hennes & Mauritz), a major Swedish “fast fashion” retailer, led 30 international companies this week to commit to a new $3 billion fund to improve the safety of garment factories in Bangladesh. Watchdog organizations say the companies acted only because of external pressure by activists and workers. |
 | Ranbaxy Pays $500 Million Fine for Selling Bad Batches of Generic Medicines
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
May 14th, 2013
Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo, has paid a $500 million fine and pled guilty to selling adulterated drugs manufactured in India. The settlement comes 16 months after the company signed an agreement with U.S. authorities to change its ways. |
 | Ukraine Egg King Global Plans Fail North Carolina Farmers
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
May 10th, 2013
Farmers in North Carolina are regretting the day that they put their trust in the Egg King - Oleg Bakhmatyuk – a billionaire agricultural investor from the Ukraine. Over 100 farmers are suing a subsidiary of his global empire for almost $10 million for reneging on chicken sales contracts. |
 | Neither Admit Nor Deny: Big Business Allowed To Pay Millions to Avoid Jail
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
May 5th, 2013
Record fines adding up to $36 billion have been paid out in the last 12 years by multinational corporations to the U.S. government to settle charges of corruption and fraud. But are they getting away with a slap on the wrist to avoid prosecution for major crimes? |
 | Benetton, Others Tied to Bangladesh Factory Disaster: 400 Killed
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
May 1st, 2013
Multinationals like Benetton have tried to distance themselves from Rana Plaza, a Bangladeshi building housing five clothing factories, that collapsed last week killing over 400. Activists argue that change will only come when workers get more political support to challenge them. |
 | Arch Coal Denied Permission to Blow Up West Virginia Mountain
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
April 25th, 2013
A subsidiary of Arch Coal of St. Louis, Missouri, was denied permission to dump nearly three billion cubic feet of dirt into local headwater streams after blowing up a mountain in West Virginia. The object was to extract coal from a project known as the Spruce No. 1 Surface Mine. |
 | Alstom Officials Paid Bribes To Win Indonesian Coal Contracts
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
April 22nd, 2013
Alstom, a French engineering company, has been accused of bribing Indonesian officials to win a lucrative contract to build coal power plans in Sumatra. Frederic Pierucci, a French employee of the company, was arrested and David Rothschild, a U.S. employee, has pled guilty. |
 | Guatemalan Lawsuit Against Canadian Mining Giant May Set Precedent
by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog
April 19th, 2013
A lawsuit against HudBay Minerals in Canada for human rights abuses in Guatemala is the next case to watch for corporate accountability activists after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a case against Shell for aiding and abetting human rights abuses in Nigeria. |
 | U.S. Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Shell in Nigeria
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
April 17th, 2013
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Shell in Nigeria for human rights abuses in the Ogoni region. The ruling effectively blocks other lawsuits against foreign multinationals for human rights abuse that have occurred overseas from being brought in U.S. courts. |
 | Protests Against Posco Steel Plant Mount In India
by Freny Manecksha, CorpWatch Blog
April 14th, 2013
For over a month, villagers in the eastern Indian state of Odisha have been conducting a sit-in to demand the withdrawal of armed police officers at the site of a proposed $12 billion steel complex to be built by Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) of South Korea. |
 | KPMG Senior Partner Caught for Insider Trading
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
April 9th, 2013
KPMG, the fourth biggest accounting firm in the world, has announced that it has fired Scott London, one of its top partners. New reports indicate that London was let go for providing insider information on two companies – Herbalife and Skechers. |
 | Mehadrin "Jaffa" Oranges May Come from Occupied Palestinian Land
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
April 4th, 2013
Jaffa oranges sold in European supermarkets labeled "Made in Israel" may have been grown and packaged in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, according to a report from the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement, an international coalition of Palestinian NGOs and activists. |
 | Boeing Helps Kill Proposed Law to Regulate Drones
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
March 30th, 2013
Boeing, the aircraft manufacturing giant from Seattle, helped defeat a Republican proposal in Washington state that would have forced government agencies to get approval to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones, and to obtain a warrant before using them to conduct surveillance on individuals. |
 | Monsanto Bullies Small Farmers Over Planting Harvested GMO Seeds
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
March 24th, 2013
Does Monsanto own all future generations of genetically modified seeds that it sells? The Missouri-based agribusiness giant wants farmers to pay a royalty to plant any seed that descended from a patented original. The legal decision has ramifications for other patented "inventions" that reproduce themselves like strands of DNA. |
 | Wall Street Giants – JP Morgan and SAC – Hauled Up On Fraud Allegations
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
March 15th, 2013
JP Morgan - the Wall Street investment bank - and SAC - a major hedge fund - were hauled up Friday for alleged fraud. JP Morgan was questioned at a U.S. Senate hearing about hiding trading losses while SAC agreed to pay $614 million to settle insider trading charges. |
 | “Fat Cat” Laws Approved In Europe To Curb Excessive Corporate Pay
by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
March 8th, 2013
Nearly 70 percent of Swiss voters approved a “fat cat” referendum that would prohibit “golden handshake” bonuses to departing corporate bosses while the European Union approved legislation limiting bankers executive bonuses to a maximum of one year’s salary, or twice that amount if a majority of shareholders approve. |
 | Sierra Leone Farmers Evicted for Sugarcane Biofuel Plantations
by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog
March 5th, 2013
Addax Bioenergy, a Swiss energy company, is jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of subsistence farmers in order to export ethanol made from sugarcane grown in Sierra Leone, according to the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food and Brot Für Alle, an NGO based in Switzerland. |
 | BP Goes on Trial for Deepwater Horizon Explosion
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
March 2nd, 2013
BP, the UK oil company, went on trial this week for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The company could be fined up to $30 billion over the $25 billion it has promised if the court finds that it was "grossly negligent.” |
 | U.S. Prosecutors Build Case Against Steve Cohen, Hedge Fund Billionaire
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
February 24th, 2013
SAC Capital is one of the most profitable hedge funds in history with $15 billion in assets averaging 30 percent in annual profits for 20 years running. Today Wall Street is watching nervously as U.S. government lawyers work on a case against billionaire founder Steven Cohen for insider trading. |
 | Capita Bungles Deportation of Irregular Migrants in UK
by Lily Smith, CorpWatch Blog
February 18th, 2013
Capita, a UK outsourcing company, sent text messages to thousands of people in the UK, asking them to leave the country, as part of a privatized deportation scheme. Unfortunately hundreds of people that they targeted were in the country legally. |
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