So, I was watching CNN's 'Planet in Peril' covered by Sanjay Gupta and Lisa Ling and became very interested in what they presented regarding Doe Run, Peru, where 98% of the children live with toxic levels of lead and arsenic in their blood.
Everyone who's not lived under some rock has heard of Doe Run, but I didn't know a heck've alot about it, so I google Ira Rennert, the owner of Doe Run, and here's what I found:
* Ira Rennert is a good friend of Joe Lieberman!
* The 1991 book "Den of Thieves" details how he and his execs defaulted on $1 billion in bond-debt. Alleging fraud, shareholders sued and the suit was settled for $10.6 million (a penny on the dollar), which was covered by insurance.
* He lives in a 66,000-square-foot mansion (your average Walmart footage)
* "Rennert's company, the Renco Group, is essentially a holding group that owns other companies, such as Doe Run Company, and used to own AM General, manufacturer of the Hummer. Ira Rennert bought AM General for $133 million in 1992. Ronald Perelman, a Wall Street corporate raider, bought a 70 percent interest in AM General of Mishawaka, Indiana. The deal reportedly cost close to US$1,000,000,000. The company makes the military Humvee, as well as the Hummer H1 and H2 sold by General Motors. In February 2008, Renco Group acquired Delphi's interiors and closures business which has been renamed Inteva Products, LLC. (makes auto interriors for GM) ...
* Rennert was awarded the The Awful Truth Man of Year Award in 1999 by filmmaker Michael Moore, based on a 1996 EPA Report which lists Magnesium Corp Of America as the top single polluting industrial facility in the United States and a second EPA report from the same year which lists Renco Group Inc. as the top most polluting parent company (based on total on-site and off-site releases)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_RennertWhat does shit always rise to the top?!