A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries -- in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East-- has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.
Even a decade after former President Bill Clinton banned US companies from trading with Iran, Koch Industries continues to cut deals with a nation that was considered by America to be a threat to national security.
Charles, 75, and David Koch, 71, each worth about $20 billion, are prominent financial backers of right-wing groups including the Republican, T-Party and others which believe that excessive regulation is sapping the competitiveness of American business.
In 1980, David Koch ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket, pledging to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve System, welfare, minimum wage laws and federal agencies -- including the Department of Energy, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Koch-Glitsch is part of a global empire run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have taken a small oil company they inherited from their father, Fred, after his death in 1967, and built it into a chemical, textile, trading and refining conglomerate spanning more than 50 countries. Koch Industries is obsessed with secrecy, to the point that it discloses only an approximation of its annual revenue -- $100 billion a year -- and says nothing about its profits.
Sources interviewed by Bloomberg have said that employees of Koch Industries are lectured on “the Koch method” while conducting business, which broadly referred to lessons in cheating to make the most for the company. One former employee even added that she was told to lie about cancerous emissions that the corporations were aiding in pumping into the atmosphere but refused to alter data.
Interesting was that when John Boehner became the speaker of the House esarlier this yesr, following the Congressional elections victory of the Republican/T-Party, the first "guests" to visit him in his new Chambers were the Koch brothers.
EU-Digest
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