American Corporate Bribery Abroad.

Corporates in the US can't bribe atleast openly and have to maintain proper accounts in the light of the Sarbanes OxleyAct passed after the Enron debacle. But nothing stops them from doing so abroad even though there are US laws which explicitly mention that this is not legal and such actions can be prosecuted under US law. But that did not stop Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, an American company, from paying bribes in cash and kind to the Indonesian politicians as well as the military to continue polluting pristine rain forested areas. The company operates a mine on the island of New Guinea in Indonesia on a site which has the largest reserves of gold. This was the basic story under the headline 'Below a Mountain of Wealth, a River of Waste' in yesterday's New York Times. I am a capitalist and a libertarian and maintain that if corporates/companies don't operate withing the rules of the market place or go against laws, they should be prosecuted. But I personally doubt anything is going to happen in this case. Many American corporates have a history of practices which would not be permitted under the law in the US. But that does not stop them from pursuing the same practices in many Third World countries. That is partly another reason why the masses in some Third World countries are so anti-American.