Bribery, Fraud & Tax Evasion

Massive monoculture plantations have begun a cascade of changes to Uruguay's economy, environment and culture. Now, the foreign corporations that grow the trees are escalating the process by building massive pulp mills that threatening lives and livelihoods. Read More

Between 2002 and 2005, St. Augustine, Fla., exercise equipment vendor Raul Espinosa watched mystified as, one after another, a series of Air Force contracts he had placed bids on were given to other companies. Of the 14 bids that Espinosa has documented, his company, FitNet International, did not win one. To his surprise, Espinosa learned that some of the competitors he was losing contracts to had never even bothered to bid on them. Read More

The federal government has sent nearly 600 auditors and investigators to the Gulf Coast region to monitor $8.3 billion in contracts awarded to help victims of last year's hurricanes, according to year-end figures released by the Department of Homeland Security. Read More

The press has spilled plenty of ink writing about Jack Abramoff, the powerful Washington lobbyist at the center of an extensive corruption scandal. But little noticed is that among Mr. Abramoff's many clients was the press itself, at least part of it. In 2000, he represented the Magazine Publishers Association, and it turns out that some of the association's money may have been funneled to Mr. Abramoff's political allies. Read More

The founder of the credit counseling firm AmeriDebt on Monday agreed to pay $35 million to settle suits filed by regulators and former customers over $172 million in allegedly hidden fees the company collected from financially strapped debtors. Read More

In two lawsuits, politically connected U.S. telecom companies have been accused of kickbacks to Former President Aristide and his associates. Read More

Months of investigation by The New York Times revealed a level of contacts and financial support to the military not fully disclosed by Freeport, despite years of requests by shareholders concerned about potential violations of American laws and the company's relations with a military whose human rights record is so blighted that the United States severed ties for a dozen years until November. Read More

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth Corp. Chairman Richard Scrushy both proclaimed their innocence Wednesday at an arraignment on government corruption charges. Read More

Welcome to the Corpwatch Blog! We're introducing this new feature as a tool for you to navigate our resources, and to help provide context to breaking news elsewhere on the Web. Read More

ABN Amro Bank, a global banking giant based in the Netherlands, has agreed to pay a total of $80 million in fines for violating regulations to prevent money-laundering, regulators and the bank said yesterday. Read More