Category: Corporate Crime

Firm Headed by Major Republican Contributors Accused of Supplying Substandard Plane Parts

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and CBS News just revealed that Pentagon investigators have accused a California company of supplying substandard components for military and civilian aircraft for nearly a decade, charging that the firm committed fraud and bribery and exhibited “brazen disregard for the safety of soldiers and civilians as well as for the sanctity of laws, rules and regulations.” The company is privately held Airtech International Inc., which also goes by the name of Airtech Advanced Materials Group.

POGO and CBS obtained a September 2006 memo in which the allegations were made by a special agent of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Unit, who argued that Airtech should be debarred from doing business with the federal government. The investigator charged that Airtech, which makes light-weight composite materials, “knowingly supplied nonconforming products to DOD [Department of Defense] prime contractors.”

Airtech has not been debarred or formally charged in the matter. A company spokesperson told CBS “we are aware of no current ongoing investigation,” but CBS reports that a document dated earlier this month indicates that an “active investigation” is still being conducted by the Army. CBS also says the House Transportation Committee is looking into the matter.

One fact not mentioned by either POGO or CBS is that the two top executives of Airtech—CEO William Dahlgren and his son Jeffrey Dahlgren, who serves as President—have together made a total of $308,700 in federal campaign contributions since the early 1990s—all of it to the Republican Party or Republican candidates, according to the Open Secrets database. Among those candidates: John McCain, who received $1,000 from William Dahlgren in February 2007, and George W. Bush, who got $2,000 from William Dahlgren in May 2000. Most of the Dahlgren money—more than $250,000—went to the Republican National Committee.

Apart from seeking contracts, the Dahlgrens may also have been investing in politics to gain influence in regulatory matters. According to the inspections database of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Airtech was cited for a serious violation in September 2006. OSHA proposed a fine of $5,060 (which is on the high side for the agency) but later settled with the company for $2,700.

Another model corporate citizen supporting the Republicans.

Will the Justice Department Prosecute Company Linked to Mine Deaths?

Too many members of Congress behave as if they were corporate lobbyists who just happen to be on the public payroll. One outstanding exception to that tendency is Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who has been a consistent champion of the not-so-monied interests, especially workers. Yesterday, Miller, who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, announced that he has asked the Justice Department to initiate a criminal investigation of the general manager of the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where nine miners were killed in two accidents last August. (The official federal fatality reports are here and here.)

Miller based his request on the results of an investigation conducted by his committee, which found evidence that the mine manager, Laine W. Adair, had concealed the full story of a previous collapse of the mine involving the same technique—retreat mining—that was linked to last summer’s deaths. Had the Mine Safety and Health Administration been given a complete account of the earlier accident, Miller argued, the mine might have been barred from continuing to use the technique.

In Miller’s referral letter to the Attorney General, he notes that Adair has vowed to invoke the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination if he is forced to testify before the committee, as have other officials of the mine’s corporate owner, Murray Energy, including CEO Robert Murray, who has “argued” that an earthquake caused the collapse at his mine.

It remains to be seen how the Justice Department responds to Miller’s request, which just happened to be announced the same week that the national hiatus on the death penalty came to an end with the execution of a convicted murderer in Georgia. When will this country exhibit the same blood lust for punishing corporate killers as it has for individual ones?