The empire built by Charles and David Koch is, slowly but surely, being revealed as built on lies, evasions, frauds, and possible felonies. It's time for American politicians to disclose and return all tainted money received from the Kochs.
Bloomberg's exhaustively researched article reveals the Koch Method, top-down orders to cheat and steal: the Kochs flout laws to get richer with secret sales to Iran.
And the Koch Method may well win approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Over and over again, the Koch brothers have claimed that they and Koch Industries have no interest in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. However, as InsideClimate has recently reported, a Koch subsidiary has told Canadian regulators that it has a direct and substantial interest in the pipeline. They've repeated this false statement to Rep. Henry Waxman, among others.
People who bribe foreign companies for profit are criminals.
People who lie to American members of Congress and American media are frauds.
American politicians shouldn't be taking money from criminals and frauds. It's time for patriotic Americans running for office to come clean - disclose how much they've gotten from Koch entities throughout the years, and return that money.
The Bloomberg piece, worth reading in full, highlights the Koch Method across the board, ranging from illegal bribes to officials, to illegal sales to Iran, to illegal releases of benzene into the atmosphere and illegal lies about oil spills:
The payments to win contracts documented by Koch investigators may violate U.S. law, says Sara Sun Beale, a professor at Duke Law School. “It sounds like a smoking gun,” says Beale, who co- authored “Federal Criminal Law and Its Enforcement” (Thompson West, 2010). “It really should get the Justice Department’s attention. When you have a smoking gun, you launch an investigation.” Such a probe would fall under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that makes it illegal for companies and their subsidiaries to pay bribes to government officials and employees of state-owned companies.
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Internal company records show that Koch Industries used its foreign subsidiary to sidestep a U.S. trade ban barring American companies from selling materials to Iran. Koch-Glitsch offices in Germany and Italy continued selling to Iran until as recently as 2007, the records show.
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On April 8, 1996, Koch reported to Texas regulators that its Corpus Christi plant had uncontrolled emissions of 0.61 metric tons for 1995, or 1/149th the quantity she had found. “When I saw they had actually falsified that document, I had no recourse but to notify the authorities,” Barnes-Soliz says.
Lest anyone think that Bloomberg is simply digging up old allegations, the company's dealings with Congress and media in discussing the Keystone XL pipeline in 2011 is rotten with the Koch Method. Again, from a detailed, fact-intensive piece:
But after InsideClimate News reported on Feb. 10 that Koch Industries was well positioned to benefit from the pipeline, its representatives complained of media bias and denied to Reuters that it had any interest in Keystone XL.
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Koch Industries issued a statement after Waxman released his letter to Upton and Whitfield. "As we explained to Representative Waxman's staff ... we have no financial interest in the project," said Philip Ellender, president and chief operating officer for Koch Companies Public Sector.
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In 2009, Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, an Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries, applied for—and won—"intervenor status" in the National Energy Board hearings that led to Canada's 2010 approval of its 327-mile portion of the pipeline.... In the form it submitted to the Energy Board, Flint Hills wrote that it "is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters. Consequently, Flint Hills has a direct and substantial interest in the application" for the pipeline under consideration.
Politicians don't normally, knowingly, accept money from criminals and frauds. An exception seems to have been carved out for the Koch entities. Is it because they're too big for ethics?
No one outside Koch knows how much it's contributed to politicians, mostly conservative ones who oppose climate policies, throughout the years. Estimates are in the millions; its contribution of $1,000,000 to pass California's Proposition 23 is a matter of record. That's why politicians need to first come clean about how much money has been received from Koch-related entities. Then they need to give it back. Otherwise, they're accepting tainted money.
Sign this MajorityPAC petition:
Bloomberg recently reported that Koch Industries routinely bribed foreign officials, fired the investigator who uncovered many bribes, and sold petrochemical supplies to Iran, using foreign subsidiaries to launder the transactions and skirt the US ban to sales to a country whose leader said that Israel must disappear. The Koch Brothers have used these profits to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Republican officials and causes for years. It's time for them to stand up and return these contributions from David and Charles Koch.