in December 1999, the jury found that Koch Industries did steal oil from the public and lied about its purchases – 24 thousand times
In April, Koch’s Petroleum Group was fined 20 million dollars after it released huge amounts of cancer-causing benzene from a Texas refinery and then tried to cover it up.Even if they are a private corporation, U.S. companies still need corporate charters, right? Exactly what does it take to revoke one? If this company didn't lose its charter, what company would?
t’s taken a while, but the events of those two years—the plane crash and the cancer—have transformed David Koch, slowly changing him into one of the most generous but low-key philanthropists in America. After spending much of the past decade and a half giving to cancer causes as well as supporting his right-wing political agenda, Koch grabbed the spotlight this summer with a $100 million gift to the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, elevating the profile of a businessman previously known mainly for a bruising fight with his twin brother over control of the family business.posted by Fuzzy Monster at 10:16 AM on April 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Koch, who would go on to marry Julia, acknowledges that he’s now more well-known thanks to the theater gift, which capped decades of giving that has also included $125 million to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for cancer research, and $25 million to Johns Hopkins University. His giving ranks him seventh in Condé Nast Portfolio’s Generosity Index. He says the motive for much of his giving can be traced to that February evening on the tarmac in L.A. “When you’re the only one who survived in the front of the plane and everyone else died—yeah, you think, My God, the good Lord spared me for some greater purpose,” he says. “My joke is that I’ve been busy ever since, doing all the good works I can think of so he can have confidence in me.”
"Koch, the ninth richest man in the United States, has distributed a tiny fraction of his wealth to greenwash his image, putting his name on cancer research centers (Koch had prostate cancer) and ballet halls (Koch enjoys watching the 'beautiful girls'). His propaganda operation Americans for Prosperity, meanwhile, scares Americans about President Obama’s 'radical global warming agenda' and claims health care reform is like Adolf Hitler’s 'final solution.' *posted by ericb at 12:08 PM on April 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Kock [sic] is also a major donor to certain legitimate scientific enterprises, including recently a lot of endeavors related to researching human evolution. Most specifically, he funded a new Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History.posted by UrineSoakedRube at 11:01 PM on April 2, 2010
I love primates, so I went to check it out a couple of weeks ago. It’s full of interesting stuff. But coincidentally enough, the exhibit also takes a number of slightly bizarre detours that seem calculated to confuse people about the science pertaining to present-day climate change. There’s even an interactive game near the end of the exhibit that basically has nothing to do with human evolution, but does just bluntly assert that investing money in mass transit will harm a nation’s economy.
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posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:41 AM on April 1, 2010 [3 favorites]