Koch Industries
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Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kansas, is a giant diverse corporation specializing in the oil, chemical, and mining industries. It has an annual turnover of around $35 billion (2002). The corporation was formed in 1946 by Fred Koch and is involved with a number of subsidery products, such as: asphalt, fertilizers, fibers, minerals, natural gas, petroleum, plastics, ranching, and securities. Koch Industries is now under the joint administration of Charles and David H. Koch.
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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 Citizens for a Sound Economy and the Cato Institute. (Their father had 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.
The group Americans for Prosperity currently acts as the political arm of the company, formed as a successor to Citizens for a Sound Economy. Although the groups are nominally separate, they share numerous members, directors, missions, and even addresses. Wayne Gable, for instance, is a member of the board of directors of Americans for Prosperity, and is simultaneously the managing director of the lobbying wing of Koch Industries. Previously he served as president of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Mitchell Pfotenhauer serves as the president for Americans for Prosperity, and was previously the head of Koch's lobbying wing, and executive vice president of Citizens for a Sound Economy. She also serves as president of the Independent Women's Forum, a political organization run out of the same office.
Americans for Prosperity recently created the group Rock the Hypocrisy, dedicated to attacking the Rock The Vote organization for being too partisan. In 2003, the group paid House Majority Leader Dick Armey $429,583 for consulting services.
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 their employees were also charged with criminal offenses in the case, facing up to 35 years in prison. Just before the case went to trial - only three months after the Bush administration took office - the Justice Department suddenly settled for $20 million. Koch pled guilty to one count of concealing evidence, and the criminal charges against the employees were dropped. (Center for Public Integrity -- Williams et al., July 2004)
References
External links
- Official site (http://www.kochind.com)
- Koch's Low Profile Belies Political Power (http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347) - Part of a "Politics of Oil" report by the Center for Public Integrity.
- An expose (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_06_05.php#005795) from Talking Points Memo