Petrobras Spilled More Oil in 2010 Than Chevron Did in Brazil This Month

"Brazilians newspaper O Globo Sunday reported Brazilian oil company Petrobras spilled more oil in all of 2010 than did Chevron Corp. earlier this month off the coast of Rio de Janeiro."

More on International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/257237/20111128/petrobras-spilled-oil-2010-chevron-did-brazil.htm

Read original article (in Portuguese)

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A is a "Global Compact Advanced" participant and became a participant on 2003/11/26.

Peru protests at huge Conga gold mine in Cajamarca

"Thousands of people in northern Peru have protested against plans for a huge open-cast goldmine in the high Andes."

More on BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15884119

Newmont Mining Corp is a Global Compact participant since 2004/06/09

Mexican prosecutors allege CAD 93 million corruption scandal at public utility

Mexican prosecutors said Wednesday they have uncovered a $93 million corruption scandal at the Federal Electricity Commission.

More on Oilweek Magazine

Comision Federal de Electricidad, Division Centro Sur is a Global Compact participant since 2006/04/21

Power plants fined over pollution

China's environmental watchdog has punished eight power plants for violations of the law on control of sulfur dioxide emissions .... More on China Daily

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Among the eight companies are Global Compact participants China Power Investment Corp. and China Datang Corporation, which respectively joined on 2009/06/01 and 2008/05/01. As of 24-11-2011 China Power Investment Corp. is non-communicating.

French firm fined RM133m for bribery in Malaysia

French engineering group Alstom was fined RM133 million by Swiss authorities after its employees were found to have bribed civil servants in at least three cases including the award of contracts in Malaysia.

More on the Malaysian Insider
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/french-firm-fined-rm133m-for-bribery-in-malaysia/

Alstom to pay €31m fine after bribery probe

Alstom has been ordered to pay €31m by Switzerland’s attorney-general for negligently failing to stop bribery by some employees...

More on the Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1cd17286-1508-11e1-b9b8-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1eTeD0ITD


Alstom is a Global Compact participant since 2008/03/18. It is a Member of the Working Group on the 10th Principle.

Pfizer agrees to pay $60 million to settle probe into bribes

"Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay more than $60 million to settle an investigation by U.S. regulators into whether the drug maker paid bribes to win business abroad, the Wall Street Journal reported"

More on the L.A. Times website.

More on Corruption Currents

Monsanto, Bayer and Dow face trial for 'systematic human rights abuses'

"Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and BASF, will face a public tribunal in early December accused of systematic human rights violations. They are accused of violating more than 20 instruments of international human rights law through promoting reliance on the sale and use of dangerous and unsafe pesticides including endosulfan, paraquat and neonicotinoids. (...) While the [Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT)] has no legal weight, and cannot force sanctions on companies, it aims to expose and raise awareness of large-scale human rights violations."

More on Peace, Earth and Justice News

Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and BASF are all Global Compact participants'

Impala-Platinum-Holdings Records Two Fatalities

Three workers died in separate platinum mine accidents in South Africa over the last couple of days, with both Impala Platinum (Implats) and Anooraq on Monday reporting fatalities.

More on Mining Weekly

Impala Platinum Holdings Limited is a Global Compact participant since 2008/04/08.

A former South African minister allegedly received commissions from Thales

Mac Maharaj, a former transport minister and spokesman for the South African President Jacob Zuma, allegedly received about EUR 180,000 euros from the French firm Thales, the Sunday Times of Johannesburg said on November 20th 2011. It is said Mac Maharaj received the money before entering into a license agreement for credit cards. The funds would be wired between 1997 and 1999 on behalf of his wife through the Swiss account of Shabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial advisor.

More on the Sunday Times of Johannesburg

Thales is a Global Compact participant since 2003/06/03.

Switzerland to charge Alstom in bribery probe

Swiss authorities could charge Alstom with bribery as part of a corruption probe, French daily Le Monde reported on November 18th 2011. Read more on Reuters

Alstom is a Global Compact participant since 2008/03/18. It is also a Member of the Working Group on the 10th Principle.

EDF fined EUR 1.5 mn for spying on Greenpeace nuclear campaign

EDF fined for spying on Greenpeace nuclear campaign

More on the BBC

EDF is a Global Compact participant since 2001/08/22

Greenpeace press release (In French)

Magyar Telekom Increases Its FCPA Reserve

Hungary’s Magyar Telekom Nyrt. said Monday it increased by more than 40% its reserve for settling a bribery probe with U.S. authorities.
More on WSJ Online, Corruption Currents
Magyar Telekom is Global Compact participant since 2009/05/06. Magyar Telekom is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom, one of the Global Compact founding fathers.

Excerpt from the S.E.C. filing (FORM 6-K):
"On June 24, 2011, Magyar Telekom announced that its Board of Directors had approved an agreement in principle with the staff of the SEC to resolve the SEC’s investigation relating to the Company through a settlement. Pursuant to the agreement in principle, the Company, without admitting or denying the allegations against it, would consent to a U.S. court order permanently enjoining it from any future FCPA violations and pay disgorgement and a conditional civil penalty. (...)"

U.S. EPA, DNREC reach $500,000 settlement with DuPont Corp. for water quality violations

On November 10 2011, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. EPA. entered into a consent decree with the DuPont Corp. in which the company has agreed to pay a penalty of $500,000 for numerous violations of the DuPont Edge Moor plant site’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and other state and federal regulations. Many of the violations at the facility – which makes a white pigment from titanium used in the print and publishing industries – were pollutant discharges into the Delaware River that occurred between 2005 and 2011.

Read the official press release from the DNREC

DuPont is a Global Compact participant since 2001/05/10.

26 injured in clashes as Ecopetrol employees begin 24-hour strike

On November 9, 2011, "(a)t least 26 Ecopetrol employees were injured in clashes with police in the central Colombian city of Barrancabermeja Wednesday, hours after the oil workers began a 24-hour strike over wages.", according to Colombia Reports.

Read more on Colombia Reports

ECOPETROL S.A is a Global Compact participant since 2009/05/13

Barrick's Nevada Gold Mine Blamed for Deaths of Two Workers

In an investigative report posted Monday, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration faulted managers of Toronto-based Barrick Gold for, among other things, allowing a safety alarm system at the Meikle Mine in Carlin, Nev. to be bypassed. (...) MSHA cited Barrick for six safety violations as a result of the accident, but it terminated the last of its safety orders on June 21 after the company built a new delivery system that, the agency said, eliminated the hazards.

Read more on fairwarning.org

Barrick Gold Corporation is a Global Compact participant since 2005/06/02

U.S. OSHA cites Akzo Nobel for nine serious health and safety violations

On November 8 2011, Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry LLC in Morris, a manufacturer of chemical surfactants, was cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for nine serious violations of OSHA’s process safety management standards.
OSHA initiated the inspection in May after a release of methyl chloride was reported at the plant. Proposed fines total $63,000.

Read more

Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry LLC is a U.S. subsidiary of Dutch company Akzo Nobel nv, a Global Compact participant since 2004/10/01.

Colombia's Ecopetrol challenged over human rights record

"Colombians recently had a rare opportunity to buy a stake in the...Ecopetrol company, but critics complain that it still has questions to answer over its record on human rights and the environment…Human Rights Watch says Ecopetrol…has taken no action to address reports of extrajudicial executions and a massacre committed by state security forces close to their oil installations 10 years ago"...

ECOPETROL S.A is a Global Compact participant since 2009/05/13

Read more on the BBC website

AstraZeneca Indicted In Serbia For Alleged Bribery

"AstraZeneca PLC said Monday [07-11-2011] in a securities filing that it was criminally indicted in Serbia for alleged bribery."

AstraZeneca is a Global Compact participant since 2010/01/08.

Read more on WSJ BLOGS

NOTE:
The S.E.C. filing says : "In August 2011, AstraZeneca UK Limited’s Representative Office in Belgrade, Serbia was served with a criminal indictment relating to allegations that local employees of AstraZeneca made allegedly improper payments to physicians at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia. AstraZeneca has filed a number of preliminary procedural objections, which ask the Serbian criminal court to dismiss the indictment against the Representative Office."

Saint-Gobain's Duwamish plant on EPA “watch list” of facilities with “serious or chronic violations”

Saint-Gobain's Duwamish,Washington, U.S. plant has been listed on a special U.S. EPA “watch list” of facilities with “serious or chronic violations” that “may result in significant environmental and public health impacts.” Paris-based Saint-Gobain has racked up more fines for violating the federal Clean Air Act than any other operation in the Northwest — $962,000 in the last five years, according to government records.

Saint-Gobain is a Global Compact participant since 2003/04/22.

Read More...

Coca Cola worker wins suit against union

In November 2011, a Coca-Cola worker has won a settlement worth more than USD4,000 after he was fired from his job for not paying his full union membership and dues payments. Keith Smiesko of Saxonburg, Pennyslvania, U.S., won USD 3,356.46 from Teamster Local 585 union officials and $819.54 from Coca-Cola.

The Coca-Cola Company is a Global Compact participant since 2006/03/14

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BP to pay Texas USD 50 million for refinery pollution

On November 3rd 2011, BP has agreed to pay Texas $50 million for air pollution violations at a Gulf Coast refinery where a 2005 explosion killed 15 workers. The settlement between BP Products North America , a subsidiary of BP and the State of Texas resolves 72 emissions violations between 2005 and today.

British Petroleum plc (BP) is a Global Compact participant and founding father since 2000/07/26

More on Bloomberg

GSK Breaks Record with $3 Billion Penalty for Illegal Drug Marketing

Early November 2011, Global Compact participant GlaxoSmithKline announced it would pay USD 3 billion to resolve federal government civil and criminal investigations into its sales practices for numerous drugs. The cases included allegations of illegal selling of Avandia, a diabetes drug linked to heart risks, as well as paying doctors and manipulating medical research to promote the drug.

GlaxoSmithKline is a Global Compact participant since 2007/08/10

Read more

Lafarge Could Face Penalties over alleged Cartel Case

On November 1st, 2011 a South African news source Engineering News Online, mentionned a commission investigation has been initiated in June 2008, on price fixing and market allocation against Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), Lafarge Industries South Africa (Lafarge), AfriSam and Natal Portland Cement-Cimpor (NPC-Cimpor). It mentioned Lafarge Industries South Africa, a Lafarge's subsidiary and NPC-Cimpor could face penalties representing 10% of their yearly revenues for potentially breaching the South Africa’s Competition Act.

Lafarge was delisted from the list of Global Compact participant on 2011/10/31

Read More on Engineering News Online

Statoil Canada Limited Fined $190,000 for Excessive Water Intake

On 31 October 2011, Statoil Canada Limited, a subsidiary of Global Compact participant Statoil was fined $190,000 for diverting more water from sources than had been authorized for the company's use. The incidents occurred between December 15, 2008 and May 29, 2009 near Conklin, 360 kilometers northeast of Edmonton.

Read more.