Hungary toxic spill boss arrested

[pampango]

Source: BBC

The chief executive of the industrial plant at the centre of the toxic sludge spill in Hungary has been taken in for questioning by police. The arrest of Zoltan Bakonyi was announced by the PM Viktor Orban.

Mr Orban also said the company would be temporarily nationalised and that those responsible for the disaster should bear the financial consequences.

Engineers and disaster relief workers, aided by volunteers, have been racing to finish an emergency dam to contain an expected second spill from the reservoir.

EU experts are helping the Hungarians with the emergency dam, as well as assessing the longer-term impact on the ground water and the soil of the spill.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11514951

[valerief]

1. In America, he'd be promoted. nt

[gateley]

3. Wow. Ain't that the truth. nt

[glitch]

5. Truth. And raptly listened to on corporate media, an authority on all subjects. An American Idol. nt

[nc4bo]

9. I do believe you'd be correct.

We seem to idolize criminals here - book tours, speaking engagements, tv face time, roads and bridges named after ya and if you're really cool, perhaps an aircraft carrier or something will bear your name.

[Blue_Tires]

10. and he'd blame the spill on 'anti-business overregulation'

[joeybee12]

12. My first thought too! n/t

[slackmaster]

2. How much are toxic spill bosses making these days?

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it

[ensho]

4. we should be so lucky and sane

good on Hungary

[FlyByNight]

6. Wow! Actual accountability!

"Mr. Orban also said the company would be temporarily nationalised and that those responsible for the disaster should bear the financial consequences."

How novel. I guess Bakonyi didn't have sufficient funds to buy off enough legislators in Hungary as would happen here.

[Enrique]

7. GOP denounces Hungary

demands apology to Zoltan Bakonyi.

[Uncle Joe]

8. "All life in the Marcal river, which feeds the Danube, is said to have been extinguished. "

:(

Thanks for the thread, pampango.

[JDPriestly]

11. When will the US arrest someone for the Gulf Spill?

Lives were lost on that rig. At the least we have reckless homicide.

[Joanne98]

13. Hungary Arrests Company Director in Sludge Case

Source: NYT

BUDAPEST — The managing director of the company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent of red sludge on three villages last week has been arrested, the Hungarian prime minister said Monday, castigating the company for corporate greed before Parliament.

“There’s probable cause to suspect that there were persons who had been aware of the dangerous weakening of the storage pond walls,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, “but they thought, because of their private interests, that it was not worth mending them and hoped the disaster wouldn’t happen.”

But the arrest also revealed the complex intersections of business and politics within the state companies that were privatized in a rush in the 1990’s.

The arrested official, Zoltan Bakonyi, is the son of Arlep Bakonyi, a businessman who played a central role in the privatization of the country’s aluminum industry and is the largest shareholder of the company now under scrutiny, the formerly state-owned MAL Zrt. The elder Bakonyi is also a close business associate of a former prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, who is Mr. Orban’s political archrival.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/europe/12hungary.html

[baldguy]

14. We need some of that over here.

Corporate officers should be personally criminally & financially responsible for the crimes of the companies they direct.

[bherrera]

15. I believe they are

The question is, how is a crime defined. Therefore, your focus should be, when is an officer said to have committed a crime? What is criminal behavior? Investigate this, you will be surprised.

[baldguy]

16. No, they are not.

One of the attractive benefits of incorporating a company is that it limits the exposure of legal liability to the officers and shareholders - no matter the degree of their guilt.