Head of South Korea’s Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery, hiding assets abroad, embezzlement, concealing criminal proceeds and perjury. Lee was convicted over payments of 43bn won ($36.4m; £30.3m) made to South Korean’s former president’s confidante’s foundations, as well as for giving a horse and several million dollars to assist the equestrian career of her daughter, in anticipation of favours and government support over Samsung’s major merger restructuring.
Report accuses electronics companies for: holding a large voting bloc on most U.S. green standards groups; consistently opposing repair and reuse designs for their products; instead approve criteria they can easily achieve and earn green certificates.
Company records show handing over hundreds of thousands of pounds to climate change denial lobby groups, despite public pledge to cut such support.
Impact assessment report suggests Shell downplayed environmental risks of Shakhalin II project, including possibility of Grey Whale extinction and destruction of salmon spawning areas.
Wikileaks cables indicate that Chevron lobbied the US Government to end trade preferences with Ecuador over ‘Lago Agrio oil field’ lawsuit.
US government releases emails of Shell officials downplaying the significance of Russian environmental audit of Shakhalin II energy project by persuading the Atomic Energy Authority to disperse the findings through the report to receive vital bank funding. The project’s environmental projection is dire; 1.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide; threat to endangered species and other wildlife.
Confidential internal documents reveal that Shell provided logistical support to Nigerian police and military, aided security sweeps, and enlisted the assistance of Nigeria’s brutal military government to deal with protesters fueling death and violence.
Shell accused of lobbying in Brussels against improvements on EU’s Emission Trading System, and threatened to move refineries out of Europe, if made to pay for emissions. Internal documents also reveal Shell’s knowledge of the environmental severity of gas flaring practices, but chose not to stop their use.
Oil companies lobby over California’s Proposition 23, which would overturn the 2006 landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.
Wikileaks US diplomatic cables: Shell claims to have inserted staff in all main ministries in Nigeria knowing “everything that was being done,” and swapping intelligence with the US.