Since the Wikipedia entry for Koch Industries has been sanitized (including edits by IP addresses that reverse lookup to the company's domain KochInd.com, which remove references to the Koch Brothers' alleged support for Citizens for a Sound Economy), we decided to take this opportunity to present our own history/timeline of Koch Industries.
Koch Industries is spending tons of money on paid media and PR to try and whitewash what Bloomberg News called their "secret sins." Feel free to share a more "fair and balanced" look at Koch Industries with your friends.
1980: "In 1980, Koch Industries pleaded guilty to five felonies in federal court, including conspiracy to commit fraud." - Rolling Stone
1989: "Koch Oil, the largest purchaser of Indian oil in the country, was engaged in a widespread and sophisticated scheme to steal crude oil from Indians and others through fraudulent mismeasuring and reporting. The Committee sent its investigators into the field to conduct covert surveillance and caught Koch stealing from Indians on six separate occasions. By further investigation, the Committee determined that Koch was engaged in systematic theft, stealing millions in Oklahoma alone." -- Senate Report 101-216, A REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS (1989)
1996: "In August, 1996, Smalley was home with his daughter Danielle and her friend Jason Stone. Danielle was packing to leave for school the next day – the first person in her family to go to college...She and Jason started smelling gas. It was butane, pouring from a corroded Koch Industries high pressure pipeline, 200 yards from their home. Jason and Danielle set out in a pickup truck to find help. But their truck set off the butane, and caused an explosion...Danny Smalley filed suit against Koch Industries. His attorney, Ted Lyon, says the investigation exposed a pattern of negligence and coverup involving the pipeline known as Sterling One. Lyon describes the pipeline as like "Swiss Cheese."...Federal investigators blamed the explosion on Koch’s failure to adequately protect the line... in 1999, a jury found Koch Industries guilty of negligence and malice." -- CBS News
2000: "Koch Industries Inc., will pay the largest civil fine ever imposed on a company under any federal environmental law to resolve claims related to more than 300 oil spills from its pipelines and oil facilities in six states, the Justice Department and the U.S. EPA announced...'Today's landmark fine against Koch Industries for egregious violations of the Clean Water Act sends a strong message that those who try to profit from polluting our environment will pay the price'" -- EPA.gov
2000: "Koch Petroleum Group (Koch), which operates a refinery in Rosemount, Minn., was sentenced on March 1[, 2000] to pay a $6 million criminal fine and pay an additional $2 million in remediation costs to the Dakota County Park System in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis...Koch previously pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA)." -- EPA.gov
2001: "Koch Petroleum Group, L.P. pled guilty today [April 9, 2001] to covering up environmental violations at its oil refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas... The company was charged with criminal violations of the Clean Air Act as well as conspiracy and making false statements to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission...Koch admitted that it concealed its noncompliance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act in 1995 by, among other things, failing to control emissions from certain waste management units at the refinery." -- Justice.gov
2002: "According to separate charges filed today in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, Arteva Specialties, S.a.r.l., d/b/a KoSa, a Luxembourg company [and Koch affiliated joint-venture according to Bloomberg] with its principal place of business in Charlotte, and its former director of textile staples, Troy F. Stanley, Sr., a U.S. citizen and resident of Forest City, North Carolina, conspired with unnamed co-conspirators to suppress and eliminate competition in the North American polyester staple industry from at least September 1999 through January 2001...KoSa has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $28.5 million criminal fine" -- Justice.gov
Unknown - 2007: "Internal company records show that Koch Industries used its foreign subsidiary to sidestep a U.S. trade ban barring American companies from selling materials to Iran. Koch-Glitsch offices in Germany and Italy continued selling to Iran until as recently as 2007, the records show." - Bloomberg
2002 - 2008: "In less than a week [in 2008, a newly hired internal compliance officer and ethics manager sent to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France] discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts...By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France." -- Bloomberg
2009: "Koch Industries Inc. subsidiary Invista will pay a $1.7 million civil penalty and spend up to an estimated $500 million to correct self-reported environmental violations discovered at its facilities in seven states, according to the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency." -- Wichita Business Journal
2010: "In 2010, the most current data available, the Flint Hills and Citgo refineries next to Hillcrest collectively released 26 different pollutants into the atmosphere, including more than 19,000 pounds of benzene, 25,000 pounds of toluene, 11,000 pounds of sulfuric acid, and 25,000 pounds of hydrogen cyanide. Residents living near the refineries say they can’t definitively prove that refineries like Flint Hills are making them ill, but they believe the pollution is causing cancer, birth defects, chronic asthma and other lung diseases. Some public health studies bolster their argument, documenting elevated rates of asthma, birth defects and cancer near oil refineries." -- Texas Observer
June 3, 2014: "EPA finds KCBX to be in violation of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq., and the Illinois State Implementation Plan, at its Chicago, Illinois facility." -- EPA.gov
June 10, 2014: "Koch Industries Begins First National Ad Campaign...to 'tell a story about who we are'" (they sure left a lot out :-)!) -- AdAge
July 25, 2014: "KCBX Terminals, a firm controlled by industrialists Charles and David Koch, is pushing to delay the construction of storage sheds for two years past a 2016 deadline imposed by the Emanuel administration in response to complaints about black dust blowing into surrounding neighborhoods...The company's legal threat comes less than a month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused KCBX of violating the federal Clean Air Act. Pollution monitors recorded high levels of lung-damaging particulate matter on April 12 and May 8 near the Burley Avenue terminal and a second KCBX site a few blocks north off 100th Street." -- Chicago Tribune
March 2015: "Koch Industries has launched a multi-year national sponsorship campaign in college sports." -- Bloomberg
March 2015: "Koch Industries Hires Private Equity Communicator Ken Spain...to craft a new story for the brothers ahead of 2016." (Good luck with that!) -- Bloomberg