Under current CEO Andrew Liveris, Donald Trump’s appointment as the new head of the American Manufacturing Council, Dow Chemical may have offered a template for the way Mr.Trump’s administration wishes US companies to conduct their business.
In Liveris’ speech to the Michigan rally at which his appointment was announced he enthusiastically exclaimed to Trump that he was “…paving the way with your administration, with your policies, to make it easier to do business… “Not a red-tape country but a red-carpet country for American businesses.”
Under the tenure of CEO Liveris, Dow looks to have demonstrated a willingness to operate on whatever red carpet it feels best serves its bottom line. Being revealed to have broken the law which, in the case of wholly-owned subsidiary Dow Agro Sciences India Pvt Ltd resulted in blacklisting by the Indian Government after being found to have bribed officials, seems not to deter Liveris and Dow.
- In May 2013, Times of India reports that the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) state that Dow Chemical has donated funds to Indian political parties in direct violation of the Foreign Contribution Act.
- In February 2013, The Dow Chemical Company received a 20% penalty on its $1billion dollar tax deduction claim for investment partnerships that were, according to the US courts: “shams designed to artificially create tax losses… There were schemes designed to exploit weaknesses in the tax code”
- The Dow Chemical Company faces a court case (originally due for hearing in January 2013) for infringements of the law putting staff, and the surrounding area of one of their major European facilities, at risk in Terneuzen, The Netherlands. A public prosecution spokeswoman said: “the case is extremely complex, which is why the investigation has taken so long. However, there is enough evidence that Dow has deliberately ignored environmental rules”.
- The Dow Chemical Company was fined £37,000 in August 2011 for wrongly reporting emissions from its factory in Grangemouth, Scotland. The company said that it now “fully understands its reporting requirements.”
- In December 2007, the European Commission fined Dow Chemical Co. along with DuPont, EUR 59.2million for their role in a price fixing cartel. The companies’ cartel, for chloroprene rubber, used in products such as condoms, shoe soles and diving equipment, lasted between 1993 and 2002.
- Dow was found guilty, in September 2010, of bribing Indian officials in order to register banned, dangerous pesticides. These illegal activities culminated in Dow Agro Sciences Pvt Ltd (a 100% owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical) being blacklisted, by the Indian Agriculture Ministry, for a period of five years. More detail: CLICK
- In 2007, the New York Securities and Exchange Commission had fined Dow Chemical $325,000 for ‘improper payments’ relating to registration of four pesticides in India. At least one of the pesticides improperly registered, the notorious ‘Dursban’, has been banned in the US for many years.
- 2011 fined $2.5 million in civil penalty for violations of Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in regards to chemical manufacturing sites in its home-town of Midland, Michigan.
- March 2010 penalized $146, 917 for air violations by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The level of noxious emissions measured around the Texas City refineries run by Dow was higher than their hand-held monitoring devices could measure. Causing city government officials to declare a state of emergency and order residents to stay indoors.
- 2008 Dow Chemical and Boeing ordered by Denver federal court to pay 12,000 homeowners $926 million (Dow fined $653.3 million) for contaminating property with radioactive waste. They were found responsible for plutonium leaks from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, which is 15 miles north of Denver. Dow operated the plant from 1953 to 1975.
- 2006 fined $2.5 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (US) after inspections revealed that the company violated the Clean Water and Air acts, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
- Before the special shareholder meetings for respective stockholders ahead of the proposed merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont, on July 20, 2016, inadequate or misleading disclosures were made by Dow in the merger proxy material. Dow appeared not to be respect its fiduciary duties to shareholders- including disclosure of all facts material to the stockholders’ consideration. These undisclosed items are substantial, material liabilities facing Dow as sole shareholder of Union Carbide- still embroiled in civil, criminal and environmental litigation regarding the legacy of the Bhopal Disaster- and which DuPont shareholders stand to inherit in the event the Dow/DuPont merger is consummated. More detail: CLICK
More on Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, head of the American Manufacturing Council: CLICK
Dow’s Improper Influence? Hillary Clinton Arranged Private Meeting with Executive at Heart of Dow Chemical Scandal: http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/02/hillary-clinton-arranged-private-meeting-with-executive-at-heart-of-clintons-dow-chemical-scandal/
Dow blacklisted in India for bribery: https://www.bhopal.org/dow-agro-sciences-india-pvt-ltd-blacklisting-for-bribery/
Dow Chemical illegal activity, fines, civil penalties: https://www.bhopal.org/dow-chemical-company-illegal-activities-fines-and-civil-penalties/
An ‘interesting’ use of Dow’s funds? Dow’s top auditor alleged Liveris used his position to finance his lifestyle: http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/dow/
A toxic merger between Dow & DuPont: https://www.bhopal.org/the-toxic-merger-of-dow-and-dupont/
Corporate abuse? The corporate veil between Dow Chemical and Union Carbide: https://www.bhopal.org/corporate-veil-between-dow-chemical-and-union-carbide/
