ilena

http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber02052004.html


EXCERPT:

Inamed: The California-based company sought Food and Drug
Administration approval for silicone breast implants, even though it
was not able to present long-term safety data -- the very thing that
led the FDA to restrict sales of silicone implants a decade ago. In
light of what remains unknown and what is known about the implants'
effects -- including painful breast hardening which can lead to
deformity, and very high rupture rates -- the FDA in January 2004
denied Inamed's application for marketing approval.

A Boom Year for Corporate Crime
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
By RUSSELL MOKHIBER
and ROBERT WEISSMAN

2003 was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the
sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and
crimes was spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst
companies, for sure.

But Multinational Monitor magazine cannot be deterred by such
complications. And so, here follows, in alphabetical order, our list
for Multinational Monitor of the 10 worst corporations of 2003.

Bayer: 2003 may be remembered as the year of the headache at Bayer. In
May, the company agreed to plead guilty to a criminal count and pay
more than $250 million to resolve allegations that it denied Medicaid
discounts to which it was entitled. The company was beleaguered with
litigation related to its anti-cholesterol drug Baycol. Bayer pulled
the drug - which has been linked to a sometimes fatal muscle disorder
-- from the market, but is facing thousands of suits from patients who
allege they were harmed by the drug. In June, the New York Times
reported on internal company memos which appear to show that the
company continued to promote the drug even as its own ****ysis had
revealed the dangers of the product. Bayer denies the allegations.

Boeing: In one of the grandest schemes of corporate welfare in recent
memory, Boeing engineered a deal whereby the Pentagon would lease
tanker planes -- 767s that refuel fighter planes in the air -- from
Boeing. The pricetag of $27.6 billion was billions more than the cost
of simply buying the planes. The deal may unravel, though, because the
company in November fired for wrongdoing both the employee that
negotiated the contract for Boeing (the company's chief financial
officer), and the employee that negotiated the contract for the
government. How could Boeing fire a Pentagon employee? Simple. She was
no longer a Pentagon employee. Boeing had hired her shortly after the
company clinched the deal.

Brighthouse: A new-agey advertising/consulting/ strategic advice
company, Brighthouse's claim to infamy is its Neurostrategies
Institute, which undertakes research to see how the brain responds to
advertising campaigns. In a cutting-edge effort to extend and sharpen
the commercial reach in ways never previously before possible, the
institute is using MRIs to monitor activity in people's brains
triggered by adverti*****ts.

Clear Channel: The radio behemoth Clear Channel specializes in
consuming or squashing locally owned radio stations, imposing a
homogenized music play list on once interesting stations, and offering
cultural support for U.S. imperial adventures. It has also compiled a
record of "repeated law-breaking," according to our colleage Jim
Donahue, violating the law -- including prohibitions on deceptive
advertising and on broadcasting conversations without obtaining
permission of the second party to the conversation -- on 36 separate
occasions over the previous three years.

Diebold: A North Canton, Ohio-based company that is one of the largest
U.S. voting machine manufacturers, and an aggressive peddler of its
electronic voting machines, Diebold has managed to demonstrate that it
fails any reasonable test of qualifications for involvement with the
voting process. Its CEO has worked as a major fundraiser for President
George Bush. Computer experts revealed serious flaws in its voting
technology, and activists showed how careless it was with confidential
information. And it threatened lawsuits against activists who
published on the Internet do***ents from the company showing its
failures.

Halliburton: Now the owner of the company which initially drafted
plans for privatization of U.S. military functions -- plans drafted
during the Bush I administration when current Vice President and
former Halliburton CEO **** Cheney was Secretary of Defense --
Halliburton is pulling in billions in revenues for contract work --
providing logistical support ranging from oil to food -- in Iraq. Tens
of millions, at least, appear to be overcharges. Some ****ysts say the
charges for oil provision amount to "highway robbery."

HealthSouth: Fif**** of its top executives have pled guilty in
connection with a multi-billion dollar scheme to defraud investors,
the public and the U.S. government about the company's financial
condition. The founder and CEO of the company that runs a network of
outpatient surgery, diagnostic imagery and rehabilitative healthcare
centers, Richard Scrushy, is fighting the charges. But thanks to the
slick maneuvering of attorney Bob Bennett, it appears the company
itself will get off scot free -- no indictments, no pleas, no fines,
no probation.

Inamed: The California-based company sought Food and Drug
Administration approval for silicone breast implants, even though it
was not able to present long-term safety data -- the very thing that
led the FDA to restrict sales of silicone implants a decade ago. In
light of what remains unknown and what is known about the implants'
effects -- including painful breast hardening which can lead to
deformity, and very high rupture rates -- the FDA in January 2004
denied Inamed's application for marketing approval.

Merrill Lynch: This company keeps messing up. Fresh off of a $100
million fine levied because ****ysts were recommending stocks that
they trashed in private e-mails, the company saw three former execs
indicted for shady dealings with Enron. The company itself managed to
escape with something less than a slap on the wrist -- no prosecution
in exchange for "oversight."

Safeway: One of the largest U.S. grocery chains, Safeway is leading
the charge to demand givebacks from striking and locked out grocery
workers in Southern California. Along with Albertsons and Ralphs
(Kroger's), Safeway's Vons and Pavilion stores are asking employees to
start paying for a major chunk of their health insurance. Under the
company's proposals, workers and their families will lose $4,000 to
$6,000 a year in health insurance benefits.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate
Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action,
a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press;
http://www.corporatepredators.org).

~~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

ilena

http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber02052004.html


EXCERPT:

Inamed: The California-based company sought Food and Drug
Administration approval for silicone breast implants, even though it
was not able to present long-term safety data -- the very thing that
led the FDA to restrict sales of silicone implants a decade ago. In
light of what remains unknown and what is known about the implants'
effects -- including painful breast hardening which can lead to
deformity, and very high rupture rates -- the FDA in January 2004
denied Inamed's application for marketing approval.

A Boom Year for Corporate Crime
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
By RUSSELL MOKHIBER
and ROBERT WEISSMAN

2003 was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the
sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and
crimes was spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst
companies, for sure.

But Multinational Monitor magazine cannot be deterred by such
complications. And so, here follows, in alphabetical order, our list
for Multinational Monitor of the 10 worst corporations of 2003.

Bayer: 2003 may be remembered as the year of the headache at Bayer. In
May, the company agreed to plead guilty to a criminal count and pay
more than $250 million to resolve allegations that it denied Medicaid
discounts to which it was entitled. The company was beleaguered with
litigation related to its anti-cholesterol drug Baycol. Bayer pulled
the drug - which has been linked to a sometimes fatal muscle disorder
-- from the market, but is facing thousands of suits from patients who
allege they were harmed by the drug. In June, the New York Times
reported on internal company memos which appear to show that the
company continued to promote the drug even as its own ****ysis had
revealed the dangers of the product. Bayer denies the allegations.

Boeing: In one of the grandest schemes of corporate welfare in recent
memory, Boeing engineered a deal whereby the Pentagon would lease
tanker planes -- 767s that refuel fighter planes in the air -- from
Boeing. The pricetag of $27.6 billion was billions more than the cost
of simply buying the planes. The deal may unravel, though, because the
company in November fired for wrongdoing both the employee that
negotiated the contract for Boeing (the company's chief financial
officer), and the employee that negotiated the contract for the
government. How could Boeing fire a Pentagon employee? Simple. She was
no longer a Pentagon employee. Boeing had hired her shortly after the
company clinched the deal.

Brighthouse: A new-agey advertising/consulting/ strategic advice
company, Brighthouse's claim to infamy is its Neurostrategies
Institute, which undertakes research to see how the brain responds to
advertising campaigns. In a cutting-edge effort to extend and sharpen
the commercial reach in ways never previously before possible, the
institute is using MRIs to monitor activity in people's brains
triggered by adverti*****ts.

Clear Channel: The radio behemoth Clear Channel specializes in
consuming or squashing locally owned radio stations, imposing a
homogenized music play list on once interesting stations, and offering
cultural support for U.S. imperial adventures. It has also compiled a
record of "repeated law-breaking," according to our colleage Jim
Donahue, violating the law -- including prohibitions on deceptive
advertising and on broadcasting conversations without obtaining
permission of the second party to the conversation -- on 36 separate
occasions over the previous three years.

Diebold: A North Canton, Ohio-based company that is one of the largest
U.S. voting machine manufacturers, and an aggressive peddler of its
electronic voting machines, Diebold has managed to demonstrate that it
fails any reasonable test of qualifications for involvement with the
voting process. Its CEO has worked as a major fundraiser for President
George Bush. Computer experts revealed serious flaws in its voting
technology, and activists showed how careless it was with confidential
information. And it threatened lawsuits against activists who
published on the Internet do***ents from the company showing its
failures.

Halliburton: Now the owner of the company which initially drafted
plans for privatization of U.S. military functions -- plans drafted
during the Bush I administration when current Vice President and
former Halliburton CEO **** Cheney was Secretary of Defense --
Halliburton is pulling in billions in revenues for contract work --
providing logistical support ranging from oil to food -- in Iraq. Tens
of millions, at least, appear to be overcharges. Some ****ysts say the
charges for oil provision amount to "highway robbery."

HealthSouth: Fif**** of its top executives have pled guilty in
connection with a multi-billion dollar scheme to defraud investors,
the public and the U.S. government about the company's financial
condition. The founder and CEO of the company that runs a network of
outpatient surgery, diagnostic imagery and rehabilitative healthcare
centers, Richard Scrushy, is fighting the charges. But thanks to the
slick maneuvering of attorney Bob Bennett, it appears the company
itself will get off scot free -- no indictments, no pleas, no fines,
no probation.

Inamed: The California-based company sought Food and Drug
Administration approval for silicone breast implants, even though it
was not able to present long-term safety data -- the very thing that
led the FDA to restrict sales of silicone implants a decade ago. In
light of what remains unknown and what is known about the implants'
effects -- including painful breast hardening which can lead to
deformity, and very high rupture rates -- the FDA in January 2004
denied Inamed's application for marketing approval.

Merrill Lynch: This company keeps messing up. Fresh off of a $100
million fine levied because ****ysts were recommending stocks that
they trashed in private e-mails, the company saw three former execs
indicted for shady dealings with Enron. The company itself managed to
escape with something less than a slap on the wrist -- no prosecution
in exchange for "oversight."

Safeway: One of the largest U.S. grocery chains, Safeway is leading
the charge to demand givebacks from striking and locked out grocery
workers in Southern California. Along with Albertsons and Ralphs
(Kroger's), Safeway's Vons and Pavilion stores are asking employees to
start paying for a major chunk of their health insurance. Under the
company's proposals, workers and their families will lose $4,000 to
$6,000 a year in health insurance benefits.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate
Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action,
a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press;
http://www.corporatepredators.org).

~~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.BreastImplantAwareness.org