- Record: found
- Abstract: found
- Article: found
Corporate Donations to Electoral Campaigns: A Case Study of White-Collar Crime
Abstract
Mackenzie and Green (2008) and McBarnet (2006) have argued that it is possible for white-collar crimes to emerge from actions that are cloaked in legality. In this article I study this paradox, focusing on the case of corporate donations to electoral campaigns. In particular, I will present an intra-national study on corporate funding of elections in Colombia. The case examines the electoral donations from palm oil growers' firms to the 2002 and 2006 presidential campaigns of Álvaro Uribe. It illustrates how legal donations delivered by corporations were reciprocated by incumbents through favourable legislation and policy outcomes. Although donors were not prosecuted for giving electoral donations, since it is a legal practice, administrative and judicial authorities have demonstrated that the donors communicated with incumbents with the intention to commit fraud.
Content
Author and article information
References
Political economists have followed Grossman and Helpman's tradition of arguing that money can redirect the decisions of policymakers. A remarkable exception is the theoretical contribution of Harstad and Svensson (2011), who clearly stated that electoral financing is a form/substitute of bribery. For literature reviews, see Smith (1995) and Stratmann (2005).
Drug production, guerrilla conflict, and the presence of paramilitary forces have dominated the international agenda, as well as the academic research agenda on Colombia. However, according to the 2002 study on governability conducted by the World Bank, the decisions of the Colombian state are captured by both legal and illegal organizations (Sáez 2002). Economic groups and criminal organizations control the political agenda of this country. This article offers an analysis of how powerful economic actors influence the policy formation in Colombia. This issue has received marginal attention within the research community.
According to the National Chamber of Commerce, the bribery rate for business corporations is around 10 per cent in Colombia (Confecamaras 2006).
From the legal point of view the term “legal bribe” is ludicrous, because something legal cannot be simultaneously illegal; however, from the criminological perspective it is possible to use this term, because it indicates that legality can co-exist with illegality.
Employees of the auditing firm Arthur Andersen and the banks Merrill Lynch and NatWest were also involved in this case.
Cambio was closed on 3 February 2010.
On 19 October 2005 the Constitutional Court ruled that the congressional reform aimed at introducing immediate presidential re-election was constitutional (Constitutional Claim Decision C-1040/2005). The Constitutional Court also established that it was necessary to introduce a “law of electoral guarantees” to avoid the use of the presidential office for campaigning. Therefore, Law 996/2005 was studied and approved by the Congress.
The beneficiary firms were Agropecuaria La Loma S.A., Asociación de Agricultores de Palma de Caunapí, BIO D-Palma, Extractora de aceite C.I. El Roble S.A., Hacienda la Cabaña S.A, Manuelita S.A., Aceites Manuelita S.A., Palmar de Vistahermosa, Palmar el Diamante, Palmas Oleaginosas de Casacara Ltda., Palmas Oleaginosas de Santander S.A., Palmas Pororó, Palmas San Rafael, Palmas Sicarare, Palmas Tamacá, Palmeras del Llano, Palmeros del Pacífico Sur, Inagro S.A.
The beneficiary firms were Aceites S.A., Asopalmaceite S.A., Agroindustrias JMD y Cia., Agropecuaria Mavil S.A., ASOPALMAG, C.I. Banapalma S.A., C.I. Palomino, C.I. Sociedad Palmeras de Iguamena, C.I. Tequendama, Cooperativa Palmas Risaralda, Extractora de aceite C.I. El Roble S.A., FMP y Cia. SCA., Inversiones Agropecuarias Doima S.A., Manuelita S. A., Palmas Oleaginosas de Casacara Ltda., Palmeras de Yarima S.A., Palmeras del Llano, Union Temporal Palmera Guzman, Inagro S.A., Biocombustibles del Caribe.
The beneficiary firms were Biocombustibles del Caribe S.A., Vicala S.A., Asopalmaceite, Inverpalmas Ltda., Oleoflores S.A., Palmas del César S.A., Palmeras de Alamosa S.A.
The beneficiary firms were Agricola Sara Palma, ASOPALMAG, Entrepalmas S.A., Guicaramo S.A., Manuelita S.A., Aceites Manuelita S.A., Palma de Oriente, Palmas de Tumaco, Palmas del César S.A., Palmas Oleaginosas Bucarelia, Palmas Santa Fe S.A., Palmeras Santa Ana, Unipalma S.A.
This mechanism, known as the “Framework agreement on palm oil production” was signed by Minister of Agriculture Antonio Hernández on 12 September 1994.
Article 7 of Law 101/1993 included tax benefits only for small palm oil producers.
According to Álvarez et al. (1998: 39) and Ibañez and Querubin (2004), the strategy of armed actors has been to displace people and take control over their land to make it productive to fund their criminal activities.
One of the multiple examples of this form of violence is the case of the 123 families displaced from Hacienda Las Pavas, located in the south of the Department of Bolivar. During the 1980s these families were forced to sell their properties to Jesús Emilio Escobar, brother of the drug dealer Pablo Escobar. After Pablo Escobar was assassinated in 1993, these families slowly started to return to their land. In 2007 Hacienda Las Pavas was sold by Jesús Emilio Escobar to the firms Aportes San Isidro and CI Tequendama, which started palm oil production there; however, the 123 families did not retreat from the land. Shortly after, the central bloc of the AUC, under the direction of “Comandante Raúl” (an alias), started to instigate action against these families. On 9 July 2009 a police eviction of the 123 families was ordered by Incoder, based on an administrative request by the firms Aportes San Isidro and CI Tequendama. Before the eviction day the group of families turned to the European Parliament and some international NGOs, seeking solidarity. The letter sent to these organizations was also published in the local media, which attracted attention to the case. After a number of inspections by various authorities, and civil demands, the Constitutional Court validated in Sentence T-267/2011 the rights of these families to stay on the land that had been illegally taken. This case has received international attention, since some of the palm oil produced by Aportes San Isidro and CI Tequendama is sold to the cosmetic firm The Body Shop. The Body Shop and the NGO Christian Aid have provided support to these families. More information is available at http://retornoalaspavas.wordpress.com/.
Mensaje de Urgencia is a special power that the President can use to speed up the study of bills in Congress. This mechanism compels the Congress to study the bills in joint sessions (Article 163, Colombian Constitution).
The process of the study and approval of Law 818/2003 was documented in Decision C-370/2004 of the Constitutional Court, section VI, Consideration and Fundaments, based on Actas published in the Gazeta del Congreso numbers 182, 247, 289, 295, 396, and 542.
Note that only Articles 1 and 2 of Law 818/2003 — which referred to sugar-cane biofuel production — were approved by the Constitutional Court considering that they were the only ones included in the original bill that was published in the Gazeta del Congreso .
ACPM stood for Aceite Combustible Para Motores, or Combustible Oil for Engines.
Oscar Iván Zuluaga is the nephew of Mario Escobar Aristizabal, a majority owner of Sapuga S. A., the firm that produces palm oil in Puerto Gaitan.
Her father, Antonio Zuñiga Caballero is the legal representative of Urapalma S.A. She has been a member of the board of directors of Urapalma S.A., Palmura S.A., and Extractora Bajirá. On 15 September 2008 she resigned as president of Fiduagraria after the newspaper El Tiempo revealed that her father and her uncles Julio César and Carlos Alberto Zuñiga had bought 23,000 hectares from Afro-Colombian communities in the municipalities of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, Choco, by means of pressure by the paramilitary leader Vicente Castaño (El Tiempo 2008).
Grandchild of Alberto Dávila Diazgranados, owner of La Samaria S. A., which produces palm oil.
Between 1999 and 2007, he was general manager of Fundación Animar, a firm that produces palm oil and cacao in Colombia. Campo Soto was accused by the Attorney General of letting illegal contracts worth US$5 million in favour of palm oil producers. Today he is in prison, waiting for final sentencing. His case emerged while the Inspector General Mario Ordoñes was investigating the irregularities of AIS. In Decision D-2009-878-183667 Inspector General banned Campo Soto for holding public office for 13 years. (Inspector General, Decision D-2009-878-183667: 528– 638).
Wife of César de Hart, president of the board of directors of Fedepalma.
Wife of Jens Mesa, president of Fedepalma.
The congress was celebrated in Villavicencio, 7 to 9 June 2006.
A Conpes is a document that contains the social and economic policies and the regulatory framework for further administrative and legislative developments.
Three free-trade-zone areas were granted to the palm oil firms Ecodiesel de Colombia, Biocombustibles Sostenibles del Caribe, and BIO D S.A.
These parties were in opposition to the government coalition.
Convenio especial 003 signed 2 January 2007, Convenio especial 055 signed 10 January 2008, Convenio especial 052 signed 16 January 2009, and Convenio especial 037 signed 14 January 2009.
Decree 591/1991 introduced a special regime for contracting activities related to scientific research. The core of the regulation allows state offices to contract directly with a single provider without calling for an open and public tender. Decree 591/1991 introduced ten different modalities for direct contracting of science and technology, of which the convenio especial is one. It is worth highlighting that the convenio especial is the only form of contract that does not accept unity between the signatories to the contract, which means that the signatories to the contract have independent legal responsibilities (Article 18, Decree 591/1991).
The private consultant, Luis Alberto Zuleta Jaramillo, was responsible for the operative design of the AIS programme and the design of the subsidies for covering the exchange rate fluctuations and for the acquisition of machinery. In 2002 Fedepalma contracted the services of Zuleta Jaramillo to conduct the study “Tax Incentives for the Palm Oil Growers”, and two other studies in 2006 and 2007 related to the tax exemptions in free-trade zones and biofuel. On eight occasions the IICA hired the services of this consultant to design the reintroduction of the subsidies removed by President Gaviria in 1993.
During the criminal investigation files and records are not available to the public due to confidentiality. Information is only made public through official press communications.
The “Guidelines for Public Policy for the Palm Oil Sector in Colombia 2002–2006”, distributed during the 2002 electoral campaign, and the study “Tax Incentives for the Palm Oil Growers”, given to the Minister of Agriculture in October 2002.
This can be likened to physical and psychological harm.
Hillyard and Tombs (2007: 17) have identified physical, financial/economic, emotional/psychological, and cultural safety forms of harm. However, these forms of harm are limited to the individual sphere, and they do not cover collective forms of harm. According to Green (2010), imperceptible harm and indistinguishable victims are some of the characteristics of state crime and corporate crime. Corruption, for example, has a damaging impact on the credibility that civil society has on democratic institutions. This can be considered a collective form of harm.