DUPONT: "CHEATING CONSCIOUSLY, DELIBERATELY"
AV Krebs
In 1996
U.S. District Judge Robert Elliott fined DuPont $115 million as a
civil sanction for not turning over the data that showed soil
treated with its Benlate DF had become contaminated by an
ultratoxic class of herbicides manufactured by DuPont known as
sulphonylureas, or SUs. DuPont's withholding of the test data, he
ruled, amounted to "cheating consciously, deliberately and
with purpose ... to commit a fraud."
The ruling
stemmed from a 1993 case, known as Bush Ranch after the lead
plaintiff and was one of more than 500 suits then pending
nationwide alleging that soil treated with Benlate DF destroyed
growers' plants and crops. The case was settled during the trial
after an environmental consultant hired by DuPont testified that
soil samples taken from the Georgia growers and tested by an
independent laboratory showed no traces of contamination by SUs.
The settlement prompted hundreds of other growers to settle also.
Later it was
learned after the Bush Ranch settlement that DuPont and its
outside lawyers at the Atlanta firm Alston & Bird gave
plaintiffs only a summary of the test results. Underlying data,
including initial readings of some samples that plaintiffs
contend supported their claims, were withheld.
It was then that
Judge Elliott fined DuPont only to see his decision overturned a
year ago after he Elliott was removed from the case by the
Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The
appeals panel found that the fine amounted to a criminal penalty
for what was a civil infraction and was thus impermissible. But
the panel said DuPont and its lawyers "may very well have
engaged in criminal acts."
Acting on that
advice U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson in November 1998
ordered a criminal investigation of DuPont Co. for possible
obstruction of justice instructing federal prosecutors in Macon,
Georgia to begin criminal contempt proceedings within 60 days, if
warranted, against the company and "any persons, whether
litigants, witnesses, lawyers or otherwise," whose conduct
during the trial "was such as to obstruct the administration
of justice." DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., discontinued
the fungicide in 1991.
Source:
The AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER Issue # 11
November 28, 1998
Monitoring
Corporate Agribusiness From a Public Interest Perspective
A.V.
Krebs Editor\Publisher Subscribe by sending email to avkrebs@earthlink.net
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