Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Monsanto-gate

Monsanto has been bribing Indonesian top officials and their family. The Jakarta Post reported:

"... People from Monsanto met with a senior environment ministry official on several occasions.
... an employee of the consulting firm which represented Monsanto visited the senior official at his home and gave him an envelope containing $50,000 in $100 bills.
... Monsanto made at least $700,000 in illicit payments to at least 140 current and former Indonesian government officials and their family members.
... The largest single set of payments was for the purchase of land and the design and construction of a house in the name of a wife of a senior Ministry of Agriculture official, which cost Monsanto $373,990.
... Other improper payments included, among others, payments to a senior official of Budget Allocations at the National Planning and Development Agency (Bappenas), totaling $86,690, and payments to other Ministry of Agriculture officials, totaling $8,100.
... Officials of the South Sulawesi office of the agriculture ministry also received approximately $29,500 from Monsanto.

I guess this would either a) send some vip's to jail or b) just vanish in the air.

1 comment:

PEA the TSP said...

or c) become big news for a while and nothing happens