Q. WHAT DO J. PETER GRACE AND OVER TWO HUNDRED VERMICULITE MINERS IN LIBBY, MT HAVE IN COMMON? (scroll to bottom)
On this page:
- Summary - below
- 30 Lawyers and counting
- Big $ for company executives
- Illegal W.R. Grace bankruptcy filing
- Dead kids in Woburn MA
- J. Peter Grace's Deep Christian Faith
In 2005, W.R. Grace and seven of its former executives were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Montana for knowingly endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information about the health effects of its asbestos mining operation. The alleged conspiracy existed from 1976, when, according to the indictment, there was early evidence of a health threat, until 2002, when an official allegedly provided "false and misleading information to the United States Environmental Protection Agency." A seventh defendant, Allan Stringer, was the former manager of the mine and returned to represent Grace in its "interactions" with the EPA. Stringer won't be on the stand because he died of cancer. Doh.
The remaining defendants are Henry Eschenbach, Jack Wolter, William McCaig, Robert Bettacchi, O. Mario Favorito, and Robert Walsh.
It has only taken four years to come to trial. The mine itself was closed in 1990 when concerns about the deadly health effects of the asbestos in the mine reached a critical mass. The EPA arrived in Libby on November 1999, three days after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer first reported that hundreds of miners and their family members had died or were sickened by exposure to asbestos fibers released from the Zonolite Mountain mine. According to that report, hundreds of Grace documents showed the company knew its ore was dangerous and that miners were never warned of the hazard. Twenty percent of the 5,500 residents of Libby tested had lung abnormalities.
Now that the government is finally interested, one wonders why no action was taken for the first few decades. The first claim for asbestos poisoning was filed in 1967, so things are moving right along. If things go super well, perhaps the EPA will declare an environmental emergency for the area, a step it has so far refused. But it's only been a few decades, so what's the hurry. Aftr all, two of the diseases most commonly associated with asbestos - asbestosis and mesothelioma - have latency periods of up to 40 years. That means people who were exposed to the asbestos dust could continue to develop illnesses for decades.
In 2008, W.R. Grace "agreed" to a record-breaking Superfund
fine of $250 million. The money is intended to reimburse the government for the cost of the investigaton and cleanup. The amount is far short of any reasonable estimate of the actual price of this disaster. The difference will be paid by taxpayers, as always. The profits go the corporation, the bill is sent to employees and cizizens (see Enriching Lives, next column).
With over 400 dead and over 1,500 suffering serious (and undisputed) health effects, one wonders what the standard is for an emergency? One also wonders about the decades of inaction on the part of the various agencies who knew and filed reports on the catastophe in Libby. Was it willful, or was there pressure from the top? The dude who ran Grace for 59 years was J. Peter Grace, a good Catholic, friend of the Repubican party and proud bigot. He had a lot of influence in DC during the years the Reagan administration began the gutting of the EPA, since completed by Bush 2. The ineffectiveness of the E.P.A. and O.S.H.A. continued through the Clinton Administration as well.
"Be slow, review things extensively and contribute to delay."
Back in the courtroom, at least thirty lawyers stand ready to defend Amazing Grace and it's employees. For the past four years, the legal council has done everything it can to delay the case and reduce its scope - with some success. Judge Molloy ruled in favor of the defense on several essential issues, throwing out the “knowing endangerment” portion of the conspiracy charge, excluding government asbestos testing based on a discrepancy in the Clean Air Act’s definition of “asbestos,” and allowing defendants to present a case for compliance with Clean Air Act “visible emissions” standards. The Grace legal team debated the issues with federal prosecutors in an effort to exclude the presentation of “unqualified evidence” to the jury, meaning evidence that might incriminate their clients.
Eventually, the prosecution took the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned many of Molloy’s decisions and restored vital elements of the prosecutor’s arguments. The defense appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Ninth Circuit’s decisions and handed the case back to Molloy. So although these professional obfuscators won a number of rulings the trial will go on. But in front of the same judge who was overruled.
Certainly, this trial demonstrates once again that large corporations - even corporations operating in bankruptcy to avoid paying damages for their environmental crimes - are able to bring huge resources to bear in order to avoid the consequences of their actions. Whatever they teach in social studies, it is a simple truth that the legal system operates on a set standards that precludes justice in favor of technical compliance with the law - two quite different standards.
Enriching Lives, Everywhere
So goes the W.R. Grace tagline as it appears on the company website. Unfortunately, the limitaions inherent in the "tag" concept fail to reveal the complete message: They mean enriching the lives of senior management!
LOTSA MONEY FOR SENIOR EXECUTIVES
LOTAS MONEY FOR LAWYERS
MONEY FOR CLEANUP AND VICTIMS? VERY TIGHT RIGHT NOW
One candidate for this abundance of enrichment might be current CEO
Alfred Festa, who received a 47% pay raise in 2007, for a total of about $5.5 million. $2.4 million of this amount fell under a program that rewards 225 top executives for Grace’s performance over the course of several years. This is possible because the company is quite profitable in terms of operations, even though it is in bankruptcy (more below).
Another candidate could well be
Paul J. Norris, who retired as CEO in 2006 with a $9,000 golden parachute. He had been CEO since 1998. Based on the payout Grace made to the parents of the kids who died from leukemia in the Woburn, MA "A Civil Action" settlement, that amount is equal to the value of approximately 6.2 dead kids. You go, Paul.
Then there's
Robert J. Bettacchi, one of the criminally indicted Grace executives. Bob was placed on administrative leave
with pay in February 2005 to prepare his defense. He made $385,000 in salary and $308,000 in bonus in 2005. Bettacchi has since retired.
J. Peter Grace
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND ESTATE
J. Peter Grace, who ran the company for 59 years until death caused his retirement in 199 did very well for himself as well. As a conspicuous Cristian, he made sure never to allow those teachings to interfere with profitability. You might say that J. Peter Grace was a conservative. Personal friends with Ronald Reagon and Poppy Bush, Grace was a member of an the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Council for National Policy. Secret handshake stuff for grown up boys with too much money and not enough compassion. He was an early mentor of Pat Robinson.
As is the case with many corporate
executives, Grace could always find religious support for exploiting whomever and whatever he chose.
But we can't blame ole J Pete for the funny stuff that went on with the W.R. Grace bankrupty filing, on account of he was dead.
TRYING TO SLIP OUT THE BACK DOOR WITH THE CASH
In April 2001, W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in Delaware in an effort to limit its liability in hundreds of thousands of asbestos related lawsuits. According to Department of Justice, Grace had transferred 4 to 5 billion dollars to spin-off companies it had recently purchased, before declaring bankruptcy. Justice Department attorneys alleged that this amounted to a "fraudulent transfer" of money in order to protect Grace from civil suits related to asbestos. The bankruptcy court ordered the companies to return nearly $1 billion to Grace, which will remain as part of the assets to consider in the bankruptcy hearings.
Until the Superfund settlement of 2008, the company had been using the bankrupcy as a means not to pay a $54 million award to the EPA for costs of site cleanup through 2001.
Can we just say that for any corporation, especially a Republican-connected chemcial outfit, to have gotten on the wrong side of the Bush Admininstration's Justice Department...We're just sayin'.
ANSWER: They are dead.
