Charles Koch

An 8-inch liquefied petroleum gas pipeline operated by Koch Pipeline Company ruptured near Lively, Texas. The vapor cloud ignited when two teenage residents drove their pickup truck across a creek near the pipeline. Both teenagers were killed. Approximately 25 families were evacuated. A Texas jury found Koch negligent and awarded the victims' families $296 million — one of the largest pipeline negligence verdicts ever recorded.

• —The pipeline was carrying butane. The rupture released a vapor cloud that spread along the creek bed.
• —Two teenagers — Danielle Smalley, 17, and Jason Stone, 18 — were killed when their truck sparked the ignition.
• —The 1999 verdict: $296 million for negligence. Koch settled with families before the case went further.
• —Prior to the explosion, Koch had been warned about the pipeline's condition. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated.
• —Koch was the fourth-largest pipeline operator in the US at the time.

Source:Wikipedia: Koch Industries — Legal issues; NTSB pipeline accident records

Koch Industries accumulated 312 documented oil spills across six states. The U.S. Department of Justice and the State of Texas reached a settlement with Koch in 2000 that resulted in what was then the largest civil penalty ever imposed on a company under federal environmental law: $30 million civil fine plus $5 million committed to environmental remediation projects.

• —The 312 spills released crude oil into wetlands, waterways, and soil across Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama.
• —$30 million civil penalty — described by the DOJ at the time as "the largest civil fine ever imposed on a company" under federal environmental statutes.
• —Additional $5 million directed to environmental cleanup and remediation projects.
• —Among the documented spills: a 1994 discharge of over 90,000 gallons of crude oil into Gum Hollow Creek in Refugio County, Texas, killing wildlife across downstream waterways.
• —Koch Industries had self-reported fewer than half the spills. The remainder were discovered through regulatory inspection.

Source:DOJ settlement, March 2000; Wikipedia: Koch Industries

In September 2000, a federal grand jury returned a 97-count indictment against Koch Industries for Clean Air Act violations and illegal benzene emissions at its Corpus Christi, Texas refinery. Benzene is a known human carcinogen linked to leukemia. Koch pled guilty to one felony count in April 2001 and paid a $20 million criminal fine. A separate December 2000 settlement with the DOJ and EPA required Koch to spend $80 million on pollution-control equipment across multiple refineries.

• —Benzene at the Corpus Christi refinery was released through various emission points in excess of permitted levels — knowingly, per the indictment.
• —Benzene is classified by the EPA and IARC as a Group 1 human carcinogen (definite cause of cancer in humans). Long-term exposure is the primary cause of occupational leukemia.
• —The 97-count indictment was reduced to a single guilty plea through negotiation. No executives were personally charged.
• —$20 million criminal fine — one of the largest Clean Air Act criminal fines at the time.
• —The additional $80 million pollution-control order covered refineries in Texas, Minnesota, and elsewhere.

Source:DOJ press release; EPA enforcement records; Wikipedia: Koch Industries

Koch Petroleum Group acknowledged in a 1999 settlement that it had negligently discharged hundreds of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel into Minnesota wetlands from its Rosemount refinery, and illegally dumped one million gallons of high-ammonia wastewater. Koch paid a $6 million fine and $2 million in remediation costs, and the company was placed on three years of probation.

• —The aviation fuel discharge fouled wetlands adjacent to the Minnesota River watershed.
• —The ammonia wastewater was dumped in violation of the Clean Water Act.
• —$6 million criminal fine. $2 million in additional remediation funding.
• —Three years of corporate probation — a condition that restricted future violations.
• —The settlement was reached with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota.

Source:U.S. Attorney settlement, 1999; Wikipedia: Koch Industries

Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity — founded with David Koch's $850,000 seed contribution — spent an estimated $122 million in the 2012 election cycle alone, including a targeted campaign to defeat cap-and-trade legislation during Obama's first term. AFP circulated a "No Climate Tax Pledge"; by 2013, 411 federal lawmakers had signed it — including one-quarter of U.S. Senators and one-third of Representatives. Cap-and-trade was defeated. One climate scientist's assessment: "you'd have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs."

• —AFP was founded in 2004. David Koch contributed $850,000 to establish the AFP Foundation. Charles Koch's network has funded it since.
• —The No Climate Tax Pledge was circulated to congressional candidates beginning around 2009. By July 2013: 411 signatories.
• —$40 million spent on political activities in the 2010 midterms. $122 million in 2012.
• —AFP's 2024 annual revenue: $223.7 million — operating in 35 states with a reported 3.2 million "activists."
• —AFP also spent $7 million supporting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's union-busting legislation and $8.4 million in swing-state advertising targeting Obama's clean energy policies (Solyndra campaign).
• —The legislative record: cap-and-trade passed the House in 2009 (219–212) and died in the Senate. The US has never passed comprehensive carbon pricing legislation.

Source:Wikipedia: Americans for Prosperity; New Yorker, "Covert Operations" (2010)

The Koch brothers organized a network of ultra-wealthy donors through twice-yearly private seminars — participants instructed to destroy all paperwork, surrender recording devices, and maintain strict secrecy. White-noise speakers were deployed to prevent eavesdropping. The network channeled funds through non-disclosure vehicles (Donors Trust, Donors Capital Fund) that severed the paper trail between donor and recipient. In 2016, the network pledged between $700 million and $900 million for the election cycle. During Obama's presidency, the network's political investments helped flip approximately 900 state legislature seats to Republican control.

• —Donor seminars held twice yearly at private resorts — locations undisclosed, guest lists unpublished. Participants sign non-disclosure agreements.
• —"Destroy all paperwork" and "no online mentions" were standing instructions for seminar participants, per reporting by Jane Mayer (Dark Money, 2016).
• —White-noise emitting loudspeakers were deployed outside seminar venues to prevent media audio monitoring.
• —2012 cycle: $274 million in anonymous contributions, at least $86 million traceable to Koch network donors.
• —2016 cycle: $700–900 million pledged. The network raised more than the Republican and Democratic national committees combined in some cycles.
• —During Obama's presidency: approximately 900 state legislature seats flipped to Republican through Koch-funded campaigns — reshaping redistricting maps for a decade.
• —Charles Koch foundations provided $2.1 million to the American Enterprise Institute over two decades for climate-related work; $25,000 to the Heartland Institute (2011); funding also to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, CO2 Coalition, and Pacific Legal Foundation.

Source:Wikipedia: Koch network; Jane Mayer, Dark Money (2016); Greenpeace Koch Industries Climate Denial Funding report

A ProPublica investigation documented that Georgia-Pacific — 100% Koch-owned since 2005 — killed six workers in 2014 alone, suffered nine amputations in the same year, and saw its recordable injury rate rise 37% from the prior year. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines following each death were minimal: $5,000 for one worker, $14,000 for two killed in the same silo explosion, $35,050 for a fourth. During years of record Koch profits, Georgia-Pacific's safety record placed in the bottom half of comparable U.S. paper and pulp companies.

• —Six workers died at Georgia-Pacific facilities in 2014. Nine workers suffered amputations the same year. The DART rate — days away, restricted, transferred — rose 37% from 2013 to 2014.
• —Per-death OSHA fines: $5,000 (Wesson, machine death); $14,000 (Kovar and Morris, silo explosion, Texas); $35,050 (Faircloth, struck by truck, Georgia).
• —From 2010 to 2017, Georgia-Pacific's documented electrical shock incidents rose from 1 to 31. In 2018, a worker fell 90 feet at the Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania facility.
• —Koch's 2016 safety record ranked in the bottom half of comparable U.S. paper and pulp companies — behind Weyerhaeuser and Pratt Industries — during years of strong Koch Industries profits.
• —Georgia-Pacific was acquired by Koch Industries in 2005 for $21 billion. Koch has owned it outright since. The injuries documented by ProPublica occurred during the decade of Koch ownership.
• —The Negotiator's take: a $5,000 fine for a worker death is not a deterrent — it is a price list. Koch Industries knows what a worker's life costs on its balance sheet. The number is five thousand dollars.

Source:ProPublica: "Rising Profits, Rising Injuries: The Safety Crisis at Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific"

Researcher Robert Brulle (Drexel University) documented that over $500 million flowed through a Koch-affiliated network between 2003 and 2010 in what he characterized as a campaign "to manipulate and mislead the public about the threat posed by climate change." The campaign ran through 140 conservative foundations making 5,299 grants to 91 organizations. The Charles G. Koch Foundation also directly funded Willie Soon — a Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist who published research disputing climate science without disclosing that he had taken more than $1.2 million from fossil fuel interests. During this period, Republican acknowledgment of human-caused climate change fell from 52% to 32%.

• —Brulle study (published in Climatic Change, 2014): $558 million in identified funding through the "climate countermovement" — 140 foundations, 5,299 grants, 91 organizations, 2003–2010.
• —Koch-affiliated organizations in the denial network include Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Manhattan Institute.
• —The Charles G. Koch Foundation gave the Smithsonian Institution grants totaling $175,000 in 2005/2006 and 2010 to support research by Willie Soon, who published work disputing the climate science consensus.
• —Jane Mayer (Dark Money, 2016): Soon "accepted more than $1.2 million from the fossil fuel industry from 2005 to 2015 without disclosing it." Koch-funded research included a 2007 analysis claiming climate change posed no threat to polar bears — "questioned by other researchers, but nonetheless echoed throughout the Koch network."
• —Political scientist Theda Skocpol documented 2007 as the turning point: "Climate denial got disseminated deliberately and rapidly from think tanks to the daily media fare of about 30 to 40% of the U.S. populace."
• —Kert Davies, Climate Investigations Center: "You'd have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs. They stopped anything from happening back when there was still time."

Source:Brulle (Climatic Change, 2014); Jane Mayer, Dark Money (2016); Wikipedia: Political activities of the Koch brothers

Koch Industries' own internal investigation found that its subsidiary Koch-Glitsch had paid bribes in six countries to secure industrial contracts. Four employees were terminated. Koch's general counsel acknowledged the findings to Bloomberg Markets Magazine and the Washington Post in October 2011. A compliance officer who surfaced the findings — Egorova-Farines — subsequently left the company and lost a wrongful termination suit in France. No U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) followed.

• —Koch-Glitsch is a Koch Industries subsidiary based in Wichita, Kansas that manufactures equipment for petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries.
• —Countries where the internal investigation found bribes were paid: Algeria, Egypt, India, Morocco, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia.
• —The scheme was discovered through Koch's own internal investigation — not through government enforcement action.
• —Four Koch-Glitsch employees were terminated following the internal findings.
• —Koch's general counsel acknowledged the findings to Bloomberg Markets Magazine (October 2011) and the Washington Post (October 2011).
• —Egorova-Farines, the compliance officer who surfaced the violations, was subsequently let go and lost a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company in France.
• —No DOJ charges under the FCPA are in the public record. Whether the DOJ investigated and declined prosecution, or never opened an investigation, has not been disclosed.

Source:Bloomberg Markets Magazine, October 2011; Washington Post, October 2011; Wikipedia: Koch Industries