ITT Corporation Admit 208 Violations Of Arms Control Laws
doug brewer | 01.01.2008 16:30 | Anti-militarism | Terror War | South Coast | World
ITT Corporation have reached a settlement in a civil action brought against them by US State Department over the illegal export of classified military technology to several foreign countries including China, Israel and the UK . They have agreed to pay a £28 million dollar penalty.
The case is just the latest of ITT's criminal and unethical activities that shows nothing much has changed in their long history of collusion with fascism, war crimes and genocide.
The case is just the latest of ITT's criminal and unethical activities that shows nothing much has changed in their long history of collusion with fascism, war crimes and genocide.
The settlement of 208 violations of US arms control laws spanning several decades comes after ITT pleaded guilty to criminal charges brought by the US Department of Justice earlier last year.
ITT Corporation accepted as part of a plea bargain a unprecedented $100 financial penalty in that case.
SEE
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_192.html
The latest legal action in the civil court adds a £28 million dollar penalty to the cost of ITT's criminal conspiracy and coverup.
SEE http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ca_ITT_Corporation.htm
Despite the fact that the Peoples Republic of China is on a list of prescribed countries that it is an offense for US arms firms to export to without presidential authority, and several prosecutions have been brought against other individuals who have attempted to supply China and Iran with military equipment, not one director of ITT has faced prosecution.
In the latest settlement ITT Corporation has also avoided disbarment for its future export of military equipment to foreign countries due to the "overriding national security and foreign policy interests” in the continuation of its business .
The case recalls the prosecution of ITT on charges of perjury in the 1970's after it denied to the US congress its involvement in the CIA backed military coup that overthrew the marxist President Allende's government on 11th September 1973, leading to his death and that of thousands of leftist supporters under the Pinochet dictatorship who were subsequently tortured and murdered.
The then Director of Central Intelligence at the CIA Richard Helms was prosecuted and convicted for lying to Congress about the coup,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Helms,
and ITT 'Public Relations' officer Hal Hendrix pleaded guilty to lying under oath to congress, yet escaped with a mere £100 fine as reward for cooperating in a larger perjury case against ITT.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhendrixH.htm
But the perjury case against ITT was then dropped altogether in 1979 on grounds of 'national security'. http://tinyurl.com/2kc6nu
Multinational Monitor writes 'In 1978 and '79, the Justice Department dropped claims that ITT executives had perjured themselves in congressional hearings on the Chilean takeover, claiming that their evidence would endanger "national security." Edward Kory, who was U.S. ambassador to Chile at the time of the coup, claimed that ITT Chairman Geneen was not indicted because "he knows too much" about the CIA's relationships with U.S. corporations around the world.'
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1982/01/itt.html
Documents declassified in 2000 proved that ITT had lied to congress about its involvement in Chilean politics but the case was never reopened. http://tinyurl.com/2xmaj8
More at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm
ITT have gained a reputation for securing high level political backing for their business interests since the early 20th century that has included securing phones systems for fascist General Franco during the Spanish Civil War enabling him to rise to power, and paying funds into the slush fund of Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler, the man responsible for carrying out the mass extermination programme of the nazi holocaust.
http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/EurMEast.html#Card%2032
ITT CEO Harold Sothenes Behn was speaking personally with Hitler on a weekly basis throughout World War II.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2006/pulpit_20060119_000880.html
After the second world war ITT secured $27 million in compensation from the US government for the loss of its German factories in allied bombing, despite the fact that the factories involved were building Nazi military aircraft used to attack the allies and London during the war.
The exposure in 1972 of ITT's bribery of President Nixon aides through a leaked ITT memo led to a scandal. ITT had donated $400,000 to the Republican Party convention on condition that three cases against them for breaching laws against business monopolies (anti-trust laws) were dropped. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903331,00.html
The Nixon telephone tapes disclosed in the Watergate investigations show that In 1971 President Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to drop a Department of Justice appeal of a corporate merger involving ITT.
LISTEN TO MP3 : http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/2-2-itt.mp3
The non filing of the appeal application led to the ITT merger with an insurance company going ahead despite the DOJ belief that the merger breached anti-trust laws.
In the most recent criminal case the President and CEO of ITT Louis J. Giuliano who oversaw decades of illegal export activity left his job in 2004, but soon after was rewarded with an appointment as a Governor of the US Post Office by the Bush Administration, and as a senior advisor of The Carlyle Group - an investment group closely linked to the Bush family.
However outside the protective sphere of the US political system the company has occasionally come undone. In 1981 four directors of ITT-Austria were convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison http://tinyurl.com/24g88n in a case that saw the resignation of the Austrian Finance Minister over his involvement in a lucrative and corrupt hospital building project.
In December 2007 ITT bought out EDO Corporation http://www.edocorp.com who own a subsidiary EDO MBM Technology Ltd in Brighton, UK. http://www.edombmtech.co.uk
A four year anti-war campaign has been conducted against EDO MBM by the protest group Smash EDO http://www.smashedo.org.uk who have vowed to continue their protest against the new parent company which is the 17th largest arms company in the world.
EDO MBM produce military equipment used by US, UK and Israeli forces used in war crimes across the Middle East.
ITT have sought to recover their brand name from the negative publicity of the scandals of the twentieth century.
Unfortunately for them they will not be allowed to forget what has been done in their name.
ITT Corporation accepted as part of a plea bargain a unprecedented $100 financial penalty in that case.
SEE
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_192.html The latest legal action in the civil court adds a £28 million dollar penalty to the cost of ITT's criminal conspiracy and coverup.
SEE
http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ca_ITT_Corporation.htm Despite the fact that the Peoples Republic of China is on a list of prescribed countries that it is an offense for US arms firms to export to without presidential authority, and several prosecutions have been brought against other individuals who have attempted to supply China and Iran with military equipment, not one director of ITT has faced prosecution.
In the latest settlement ITT Corporation has also avoided disbarment for its future export of military equipment to foreign countries due to the "overriding national security and foreign policy interests” in the continuation of its business .
The case recalls the prosecution of ITT on charges of perjury in the 1970's after it denied to the US congress its involvement in the CIA backed military coup that overthrew the marxist President Allende's government on 11th September 1973, leading to his death and that of thousands of leftist supporters under the Pinochet dictatorship who were subsequently tortured and murdered.
The then Director of Central Intelligence at the CIA Richard Helms was prosecuted and convicted for lying to Congress about the coup,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Helms, and ITT 'Public Relations' officer Hal Hendrix pleaded guilty to lying under oath to congress, yet escaped with a mere £100 fine as reward for cooperating in a larger perjury case against ITT.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhendrixH.htm But the perjury case against ITT was then dropped altogether in 1979 on grounds of 'national security'.
http://tinyurl.com/2kc6nu Multinational Monitor writes 'In 1978 and '79, the Justice Department dropped claims that ITT executives had perjured themselves in congressional hearings on the Chilean takeover, claiming that their evidence would endanger "national security." Edward Kory, who was U.S. ambassador to Chile at the time of the coup, claimed that ITT Chairman Geneen was not indicted because "he knows too much" about the CIA's relationships with U.S. corporations around the world.'
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1982/01/itt.html Documents declassified in 2000 proved that ITT had lied to congress about its involvement in Chilean politics but the case was never reopened.
http://tinyurl.com/2xmaj8 More at:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm ITT have gained a reputation for securing high level political backing for their business interests since the early 20th century that has included securing phones systems for fascist General Franco during the Spanish Civil War enabling him to rise to power, and paying funds into the slush fund of Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler, the man responsible for carrying out the mass extermination programme of the nazi holocaust.
http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/EurMEast.html#Card%2032 ITT CEO Harold Sothenes Behn was speaking personally with Hitler on a weekly basis throughout World War II.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2006/pulpit_20060119_000880.html After the second world war ITT secured $27 million in compensation from the US government for the loss of its German factories in allied bombing, despite the fact that the factories involved were building Nazi military aircraft used to attack the allies and London during the war.
The exposure in 1972 of ITT's bribery of President Nixon aides through a leaked ITT memo led to a scandal. ITT had donated $400,000 to the Republican Party convention on condition that three cases against them for breaching laws against business monopolies (anti-trust laws) were dropped.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903331,00.html The Nixon telephone tapes disclosed in the Watergate investigations show that In 1971 President Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to drop a Department of Justice appeal of a corporate merger involving ITT.
LISTEN TO MP3 :
http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/2-2-itt.mp3 The non filing of the appeal application led to the ITT merger with an insurance company going ahead despite the DOJ belief that the merger breached anti-trust laws.
In the most recent criminal case the President and CEO of ITT Louis J. Giuliano who oversaw decades of illegal export activity left his job in 2004, but soon after was rewarded with an appointment as a Governor of the US Post Office by the Bush Administration, and as a senior advisor of The Carlyle Group - an investment group closely linked to the Bush family.
However outside the protective sphere of the US political system the company has occasionally come undone. In 1981 four directors of ITT-Austria were convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison
http://tinyurl.com/24g88n in a case that saw the resignation of the Austrian Finance Minister over his involvement in a lucrative and corrupt hospital building project. In December 2007 ITT bought out EDO Corporation
http://www.edocorp.com who own a subsidiary EDO MBM Technology Ltd in Brighton, UK. http://www.edombmtech.co.uk A four year anti-war campaign has been conducted against EDO MBM by the protest group Smash EDO
http://www.smashedo.org.uk who have vowed to continue their protest against the new parent company which is the 17th largest arms company in the world. EDO MBM produce military equipment used by US, UK and Israeli forces used in war crimes across the Middle East.
ITT have sought to recover their brand name from the negative publicity of the scandals of the twentieth century.
Unfortunately for them they will not be allowed to forget what has been done in their name.
doug brewer
e-mail:
brwr_dg@yahoo.com
Comments
Hide the following comment
International Import-Export Institute react negatively to ITT case
01.01.2008 19:46
What follows are extracts from the article published at
...A group of seasoned industry
practitioners attending the Interna-
tional Import-Export Institute were
provided copies of the Plea Agree-
ment between ITT and the US De-
partment of Justice. They were then
asked: How would you character-
ize ITT’s corporate compliance cul-
ture? Here’s a representative cross-
section of responses.
• “ITT Night Vision (NV)
was obviously driven by the bottom-
line with no regard for ethics or the
law. Management displayed an ar-
rogant and dismissive attitude toward
laws and regulations. Their obstruc-
tive and deceitful behavior through-
out should have been cause enough
for individuals to be held responsible.
ITT NV was negligent in the ac-
countability for this sensitive equip-
ment and technology – missing NV
goggles...”
• “ITT [management] did not
value compliance. They had total
disregard for regulations, the protec-
tion of National Security and the
warfighter.“
• “Wow, what a trade com-
pliance disaster! Amazing how self-
blinding, covering-up and ignoring
violations that harmed national se-
curity are cancerous and infect an
entire organization. This has got to
be a worst cast scenario with re-
peated unauthorized exports of our
most sensitive technologies includ-
ing classified documents to sanc-
tioned countries like China and ap-
parently aided and abetted by a group
of employees with the help of inside
and outside counsels.”
• “The ITT Corporate Com-
pliance Culture in this case was non-
existent. There were multiple viola-
tions, willful violations, and violations
over an extended period of time.
Then on top of all of that the com-
pany tried to cover-up and divert their
actions. Unbelievable!”
• “ITT’s corporate compli-
ance culture was “antipathetic,”
with emphasis on PATHETIC. ITT,
through the deliberate actions and
inactions of a number of its employ-
ees, subordinated compliance to the
pursuit of sales and profits. The cul-
ture was conducive to the willful and
deliberate neglect, resistance, eva-
sion, and defiance of US laws and
regulations whenever there was any
conflict, real or imagined, between
compliance with those laws and
regulations and the narrow self-in-
terests of the corporation and/or its
employees.”
• “I wonder whether the sur-
vivors of US troops killed in night
combat have, or will have, recourse
to sue ITT for damages for enabling
their family members’ losses.”
• “I consider the ITT Corpo-
rate Compliance Culture very non-
compliant and trying to find a
backdoor for its export compliance
initiatives (cultivating a non-compli-
ant environment) in order to save a
few dollars. I would question the
compliance culture for approximately
[the last] 10 years or better since
the atmosphere has been ingrained
and without terminating those man-
agers who knowingly violated the
law, the USG’s monitoring may not
be enough to encourage a more
compliant atmosphere.”
• “I am concerned about this
non-compliant legal representation
atmosphere. These attorneys are
setting a precedent by knowing the
law and the spirit of the law but are
willing to further support their client’s
illegal activity.”
• “Talk about a culture of
non-compliance, this has got to be
a text book example of how not to
do things and what greed does.
Who was in charge here? Didn’t
the organization have a Code of
Conduct? If so, did anyone follow
it? A $100M fine to the organiza-
tion is almost statistically insignifi-
cant to a major defense contractor
who makes billions every year.
Why wasn’t the fine higher? Who’s
being held accountable? Based on
the Statement of Facts, this case
has little or no real bite without those
responsible being brought to justice
for breaking the law over and over
again with blatant and consistent
disregard for the regulations.”
• “Did anyone in this equa-
tion abide by the letter and spirit of
the International Traffic in Arms
Regulations 120.25 requirements?
It definitely doesn’t look like it. This
appears to be a culture where non-
compliance is rewarded for the
sake of a few and to the detriment
of many. I am most concerned about
the impact on our national security
and someone’s willingness to give
our leading edge away and secrets.
I wonder. If ITT was doing it, how
many other exporters and manu-
facturers are doing it to a lesser or
even greater degree?”
• “I would characterize
ITT’s culture as arrogant and will-
ing to do anything to win a contract
and stay in business. The company
felt that they could do what ever
they wanted and did not have to
answer to the US Government.”
• “Until the Judicial Branch
starts delving out some serious jail
time there will be no incentive to
not cheat if you are on or near the
top of the executive pile.”
• “It’s obvious from reading
the Statement of Facts that ITT had
no culture of compliance. It’s one
thing to make a mistake, everybody
does; it’s another to blatantly disre-
gard USG laws and regulations. If
ITT NV shows so little regard for
trade compliance, what about other
areas of compliance? Ethics, finan-
cial, human resources?? It’s diffi-
cult to imagine that they would limit
their activities to ONLY trade com-
pliance matters.”
• “This culture was one of
greed and disregard for U.S. Armed
Forces, it’s citizens and the welfare
of our country.”
• “This guilty plea by ITT
begs many questions. While the
corporation is paying a price for their
non-compliance, why aren’t the in-
dividuals and law firms that willfully
and knowingly broke the law get-
ting the deserved degree of appro-
priate justice? While a non-compli-
ant culture fostered the wrongdo-
ing, wasn’t it individuals who ac-
cording to the Statement of Facts
were responsible for the deeds that
were done and the subsequent dam-
age to our national security.”
• “Without individual ac-
countability won’t others be tempted
to go down the same path for the
love of money?”
Statistics indicate and history
shows it takes years to completely
move a non-compliant culture to a
fully compliant one. It doesn’t hap-
pen quickly.
Habit patterns die hard.
Unfortunately, once you’re in a cul-
tural rut, it’s an uphill battle to dig
your way out.
xx