Business Archives

“Lead Astray”

November 3, 2006

In a piece for MotherJones, CIR correspondents Sara Shipley Hiles and Marina Walker Guevara reveal how the St. Louis-based firm, Doe Run, expanded its operations abroad at a time when it was facing increasing scrutiny and regulation in the United States, milking money from its Peruvian operation while claiming it couldn’t afford to finish its…

Bond scam yields profits at the expense of the needy

October 31, 2006

William Selway, Martin Z. Braun and David Dietz of Bloomberg News exposed a phantom bond scam – over $7 billion in the past 10 years – which promise benefits for the needy (better housing, improvements to inner-city schools, etc.), yet the only ones profiting are banks, insurance companies and financiers. “The arrangements — often called…

Lax regulations for contractors a recipe for trouble

October 16, 2006

McNelly Torres of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that loopholes state regulations allow corrupt business owners to continue defrauding their customers. Citing the example of John T. Pluto and his company All American Driveways and Pool Deck Inc., Torres documented how countless complaints have not impeded Pluto’s business enterprises in Broward County. “State regulators and…

NY companies exploit loophole for massive tax breaks

September 25, 2006

Michelle Breidenbach of The (Syracuse, NY) Post-Standard shows how hundreds of New York companies pulled accounting gimmicks and exploited a loophole in the state law to collect millions of dollars in tax breaks. The companies created new corporations and passed themselves off as new on paper, thus becoming eligible for tax breaks intended for businesses…

“Desert Connections”

August 21, 2006

Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times report on an epic development project in Nevada – a “67-square-mile tract of empty desert will blossom into one of the biggest cities in the fastest-growing state in the country and the projected home to more than 200,000 people.” The project is on track…

Companies find new way to win contracts

June 27, 2006

Michael Forsythe and Jonathan D. Salant of Bloomberg analyzed Federal Election Commission records and found that a growing number of companies had found “a new business model: locate facilities in lawmakers’ districts and shower them with campaign cash. ” The companies were taking advantage of lawmakers’ increasing penchant for “earmarking,” which was at the center…

Charities lose out in bingo game benefits

June 21, 2006

Darren Barbee of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram analyzed state records and found the proceeds of bingo games were going to the people running the games instead of benefiting the charities they were supposed to help. “No bingo proceeds were reported being spent by more than 40 Texas groups conducting bingo last year, though they raised…

Fla. officials profit from weak ethics laws

June 8, 2006

Bob Mahlburg of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reviewed state financial disclosure records to show Florida’s weak ethics laws and how state and local officials with real estate investments walk a tightrope between their public posts and personal profits. “State Sen. Mike Bennett has made more than $2 million renting office space to a state agency he…

State records show complaints about ‘death care’ business

June 1, 2006

Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly reviewed state files and revealed Washington consumer complaints about funeral homes and cemeteries. Consumers were “being ‘penalized’ by funeral homes for buying coffins elsewhere.” There were “complaints about bodies buried in the wrong graves, cremated when they should have been planted, or occupying plots that have been resold” and…

Farm subsidy payments in Denmark go up