| Koch Industries |
Article Index for Koch |
Website Links For Koch |
Information AboutKoch Industries |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KOCH INDUSTRIES | |
| companies based in kansas | |
| koch family | |
| oil companies of the united states | |
| privately held companies of the united states | |
|
Fred C. Koch , for whom Koch Industries, Inc., is named, co-founded the company in 1940 and invented an innovative crude oil refining process. Charles G. Koch , chairman of the board and chief executive officer, and David H. Koch , executive vice president, are principal owners of the company. The latter owns 40% of Koch Industries, and has stated that the company will publicly offer shares "literally over my dead body". ACQUISITIONS AND RELATED MILESTONES The following is a partial list of acquisitions and related events:
POLITICAL ACTIVITY The Koch brothers also operate the Koch Family Foundations , a major source of funding for Conservative and Libertarian political causes in the United States , including think tanks such as the Cato Institute . (Their father helped found the John Birch Society .) David's political activism also includes running as the vice presidential nominee of the United States Libertarian Party in 1980 , when he and running mate Edward Clark finished fourth with 921,299 votes. Koch also supports Americans For Prosperity , formed as a successor to Citizens for a Sound Economy. Rich Fink, a Koch executive vice president, is a member of the Board Of Directors of Americans for Prosperity. Previously he served as president of Citizens for a Sound Economy. In April of 2006, it was announced that the Fred C. And Mary R. Koch Foundation had contributed $1 million to help preserve the Tallgrass Prairies of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in ''. CRITICISM In 1989 , the US Senate Committee On Investigations stated, "Koch Oil, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, is the most dramatic example of an Oil Company stealing by deliberate mismeasurement and fraudulent reporting." ''(Palast p.150)'' During the Clinton administration, Koch was charged with 315 acts of Pollution . Koch Industries denied the allegations, but the cases were settled in January 2000 for $35 million in fines. In another instance, Koch was charged with 97 counts of covering up evidence in the case of a benzene spill in Corpus Christi, Texas . The government sought fines as high as $350 million. Four of its employees were also charged with criminal offenses in the case, facing up to 35 years in prison. In 2000, the Justice Department reduced the number of counts from 97 to 11 to nine to seven. Just before the case went to trial - only three months after the Bush administration took office - the Justice Department dropped the remaining seven counts and settled the case for $20 million. Koch pled guilty to one count of concealing evidence, which they had self-reported in 1996, and the criminal charges against the employees were dropped. (Center for Public Integrity -- Williams et al., July 2004) There is also speculation that these charges, brought against the company during the Clinton administration, were politically motivated against the then Texas governor Bush, to allegedly demonstrate his state's failure to handle big energy. The judge eventually dismissed 93 of the counts prior to going to trial due to lack of evidence, resulting in the Justice Department settling the case as noted above. NOTES AND REFERENCES Other references
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|