Koch Brothers Make Billions While Flouting U.S. Laws

by Jon Melegrito  |  October 04, 2011

We all know how the Koch brothers, and other billionaire ideologues like them, are brazenly buying influence among right-wing governors to weaken the working middle class and destroy unions. Unions, after all, are the only barriers left standing in the way of unbridled corporate greed.

And now we’re learning how the Koch brothers are shamelessly boosting their corporate profits by fixing prices, bribing foreign officials, lying to regulators, neglecting safety regulations and violating U.S. laws with impunity to trade with Iran – a country identified by the U.S. as a sponsor of global terrorism.

An investigative report in Bloomberg Markets Magazine details these charges against Koch Industries, the global company run by Charles and David Koch – well-known financiers of the tea party movement and right-wing think tanks. Their company raked in tons of money while secretly trading with Iran in flagrant defiance of a U.S. trade ban.

But we aren’t surprised. These brothers will do anything to advance their corporate interests.

After all, these are the brothers who founded Americans for Prosperity in 2004, with a corporate agenda “to take the unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight” the battle over collective bargaining rights – the source of union power. They spent hundreds of thousands on radio and TV ads supporting anti-worker legislation in Ohio and Wisconsin, denying the government and public sector any chances at success and social good. And they benefit from tax cuts and refuse to pay their fair share, amassing more corporate profits and greater wealth while public service workers and the working middle class are asked to make even more sacrifices.

Something’s definitely wrong with this picture.