Multinational Monitor: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003

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 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 analysis 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 billionwas 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 hadhired 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
advertisements.



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
documents 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 Dick 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 analysts say the
charges for oil provision amount to "highway
robbery."



HealthSouth: Fifteen 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 analysts 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.



by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter,  http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is
editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,  http://www.multinationalmonitor.org.
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).



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