DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS AWASH IN FUNDS FROM CORPORATE CRIMINALS, REPORT FINDS

Thirty-one corporate criminals gave more than $9 million to the Democratic and Republican parties during the 2002 election cycle, according to a report released today by Corporate Crime Reporter.

Corporate criminals gave $7.2 million to Republicans (77 percent) and $2.1 million to Democrats (23 percent), the report found.

The report: Dirty Money: Corporate Criminal Donations to the Two Major Parties, was released at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

The top five corporate criminal donors, ranked by total amount of contributions to the major political parties in the 2002 election cycle are:

1. Archer Daniels Midland ($1.7 million)

2. Pfizer ($1.1 million)

3. Chevron ($875,400)

4. Northrop Grumman ($741,250)

5. American Airlines ($655,593)

The report checked the political contributions of more than 100 major companies convicted of crimes from 1990 to this year.

"The Republicans and Democrats are awash in dirty money," said Russell Mokhiber, the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter. "They took in more than $9 million from convicted criminals. Last year, when the heat was up on WorldCom and Enron, politicians from all stripes returned campaign contributions from these two tainted entities or sent them on to charity. The parties should do the same."

The report listed the crimes of the 31 companies, and each of their contributions to the Republicans and Democrats during the 2002 election cycle.

The full report is available at here