{"id":181881,"date":"2016-02-22T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T01:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/02\/22\/so-not-a-surprise-30\/"},"modified":"2016-02-22T20:38:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T01:38:00","slug":"so-not-a-surprise-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/02\/22\/so-not-a-surprise-30\/","title":{"rendered":"So Not a Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transparency.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transparency International<\/a> is a NGO whose mission is to name and shame corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The state Delaware was just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2016\/02\/22\/how_delaware_became_an_american_haven_for_grand_corruption\/\">named one of the most corrupt organizations on earth<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Normally, when one of our 50 states gets singled out by an international body of some consequence, you would hope it would be good news and something that the locals would brag about. But that\u2019s not likely to be the case with Delaware\u2019s recognition by Transparency International this month as one of the world\u2019s best examples of \u201cgrand corruption.\u201d The dubious distinction comes in recognition of the state\u2019s laissez faire corporate registration system, which critics say provides corporations, fraudsters and wealthy individuals secrecy and asset protection that puts it on a footing with notorious tax havens like the Cayman Islands.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Transparency International\u2019s selection of the top nine \u201cgrand corruption\u201d winners was based on both internal deliberations by the non-governmental organization, most famous for its global ranking of the world\u2019s nations for corruption, and the votes of 170,000 people around the world. Other \u201cwinners\u201d include Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, enmeshed in an octopus like $2 billion dollar scandal that has shaken the sitting government; as well as FIFA, former leaders of the Ukraine, Panama and Tunisia, and Lebanon\u2019s entire political system.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">In the statement announcing the \u201cdirty nine,\u201d Transparency International said all the nominees were central to an \u201cabuse of high level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society\u201d in a way \u201cthat often goes unpunished\u201d yet \u201cconcerns millions of victims around the world.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Delaware\u2019s over the top pro-business Chancery Court, its statutory trust provisions, non-existent taxes, as well as its extremely user friendly limited-liability-corporation registration process, has drawn in more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies and over half of America\u2019s publicly traded companies. Back in 2012, the <i>New York Times<\/i> reported that Delaware had more registered corporations than it had residents, roughly one million compared to fewer than 900,000 people.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Worth noting: Delaware\u2019s functioning as America\u2019s home-away-from-home sanctuary for all business, big and small, brings in $1.1 billion dollars a year in revenue to the state coffers, roughly a quarter of the state\u2019s annual budget.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThis is Delaware\u2019s industry,\u201d says William Black, professor of Economics and the Law at the University of Missouri and Kentucky. \u201cThey sell corporate leaders protection from compliance from fiduciary obligations and the provisions of law like anti-money laundering statutes.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Boosters of Delaware say that the major reason businesses choose Delaware is their business savvy Chancery Court, which has been sorting out commercial equity issues since the 1790s and today has jurisdiction over suits in which the massive universe of Delaware entities are named as defendants.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Black \u2014 who as a federal bank regulator blew the whistle on the role of Congress in the Keating 5 (McCain, Glenn et al) savings and loan scandal \u2014 says Delaware\u2019s Chancery Court is at the heart of the problem, noting it has enforced trusts between parties in a way that \u201callows you to eliminate the fiduciary duty of standard of care for shareholders and eviscerates the fiduciary duty of loyalty through their court decisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I am not sure how the US can engage in sanctions against one of its own states, but if Delaware were a foreign nation, sanctions would be well justified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transparency International is a NGO whose mission is to name and shame corruption. The state Delaware was just named one of the most corrupt organizations on earth: Normally, when one of our 50 states gets singled out by an international body of some consequence, you would hope it would be good news and something that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005,970,1041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-corruption","category-law-enforcement-misconduct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}