Corporate Scandals Cost Americans Billions: Report

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 18, 2002

Corporate Scandals Cost Americans Billions: Report

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A new, shocking picture of the "bad apples" in corporate America, measured in terms of dollars and business scandal, is presented in a new report released here on Thursday by United States Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

The report, "The Cost of Corporate Recklessness", was produced by the "No More Enrons" Coalition, which was partially funded by consumer groups and labor unions.

The report put the total costs of corporate scandals at more than 200 billion US dollars, which were in lost investment savings, jobs, pension losses and tax revenue. And it estimated that more than a million workers lost their jobs at the affected companies.

According to the report, the real cost of all the recently exposed corporate misbehaviors has fallen largely onto the shoulders of ordinary working Americans.

The report put together data from the government and other public sources to detail the impact of accounting failures at Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia Communications, Xerox, Tyco International, Qwest Communications and others.

When releasing the report, Daschle called for strong actions from the United States government over the corporate scandals, and he once again criticized Harvey Pitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pitt, though still faced with mounting tough work in cleansing corporate America, has been under heavy fire from the Democrats, who have been demanding his replacement.

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