Corporate crime
The corporate baddies are running amok again. Richard Swift, Private Investigator, skulks around corners to get a fix on what they are up to and how to stop it.

Are they sorry?
Judge the corporate criminals for yourself.

The invisible friend
Renegade corporate lawyer Harry Glasbeek's got the goods on how the rich and powerful hide behind the corporate mask.

Mega-crime scenes
Pratap Chatterjee shows that 'development' by
mega-projects is a playground for corporate offenders.

CORPORATE CRIME WAVE - THE FACTS

Lies and videotape
Stephanie Boyd catches bribers in
the act in a cushy Lima office.

Confessions of a hedge-fund analyst
Sheelah Moore tells all.

Where did the money go?
How the corporate scamsters divided up the loot.

Stock swindle
Ellen Frank reveals how insider trading
is really the name of the game.

Stop the rot at the top (ACTION)
A guide to corporate crime-busting.

CORPORATE crime tends to come in waves.
Sure, it’s always there in the background
– a lurking possibility. But like other kinds of
crime it is a crime of opportunity. So the
development of new markets, new products,
new territories in which to operate or new
rules and regulations from the 1990s
onwards provided fertile ground. We are
only just realizing the true extent of how
active the corporate crooks were in taking
advantage of them.

And if you’ve got the money and
resources – as most corporate crooks do –
you can stay one step ahead of the regulators
and your critics.

If I had to bet on the next wave of insider
dealing, corruption and abuse I would
finger the ‘rebuilding’ of Iraq or any other
countries the Bushies and their allies decide
to invade. The companies contracted to do
this kind of work already have a glorious
history of corporate malfeasance.

But frankly, too many facts and figures
about corporations make my eyes glaze over
and I expect yours would too. That’s why I
decided to frame this issue about corporate
crime as a detective story. I would like to
thank Jim Miller for his stimulating visual
imagination and Mary Ann Cassidy for her
tireless sleuthing in helping to put this issue
together.

Best to find a seedy bar where you can
slump in the corner to read this month’s NI.

Richard Swift
for the New Internationalist
Co-operative
rswift@web.net