Corporate crime - Definition and Overview

Corporate crime refers to criminal practices by individuals that have the legal authority to speak for a corporation or company. These can include presidents, CEOs, managers, directors and chairmen, sales people, agents, or anyone within a company that has authority to act on behalf of the firm. Examples of criminal behaviour in most jurisdictions include: fraud, damage to the environment in violation of environmental legislation, exploitation of labour in violation of labour laws, and failure to maintain a fiduciary responsibility towards shareholders.

Corporate accountability refers to being accountable to the stakeholders of the organization. These stakeholders may include shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, the local community, and the country(s) that the firm operates in. In most jurisdictions, a body of corporate law has been developed to formalize these requirements.

Details of criminal activities conducted by corporations are available from organisations such as Corporate Watch, Corporate Watch UK and Pyramid Scheme Alert (http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/). Also, a Corporation Watch Wiki will be an integral part of the growing Knowmore.org community (http://www.knowmore.org/).

Joel Bakan argued that as corporations increase profitability, they often engage in criminal activity.

See also

• Business ethics
• Anti-globalization movement
• Accounting scandals
• Investment bank
• Misleading financial analysis
• Michael Moore - American campaigner for corporate accountability.
• Mark Thomas & Billy Bragg - British campaigners for corporate accountability and manslaughter laws.
• Corporate abuse
  • Enron - notorious offenders.
  • Amway or Quixtar - controversial MLM-type offenders.

External links

• Corporate Accountability Project (http://www.corporations.org/)
• "Killing for Capital" (notable article) (http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/ford_firestone_manslaughter.html)
• Corporate Crime Reporter (http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/)
• Centre for Corporate Accountability (http://www.corporateaccountability.org/)
• U.S. President on Corporate Responsibility (http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/corporateresponsibility/)
• Business Ethics Magazing (http://www.business-ethics.com/)
• Corporate Watch (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/)
• Merchants of Deception (MOD) (http://www.merchantsofdeception.com/) - Factual story or corporate crime within the Amway Quixtar organization (free PDF eBook by Eric Scheibeler)