BOSTON - JUNE 27 - Corporate Accountability International today announced that ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Wal-Mart are the three newly elected inductees to its Corporate Hall of Shame. The membership organization, which wages winning campaigns against irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions, opened online voting in May with five other potential inductees: Coke, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Merck and Nestlé. Corporations were nominated for a variety of factors, including documented abuses that harm people and the environment, political influence and interference, and public deception.

Approximately 8,592 separate voters cast online ballots from around the world May 16 through June 20, with ExxonMobil and Halliburton being selected by half of all voters, and Wal-Mart just narrowly beating out Kimberly-Clark to become the third inductee. 

Voters also had the option write-in their own candidates, and more than 300 people did so, with corporations such as Monsanto, Lockheed Martin and McDonald's named most frequently. To read more about the voting results and to read comments from voters, visit: http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/

"The Hall of Shame demonstrates that thousands of people are fed up with irresponsible corporations," said Kelle Louaillier, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability International. "The competition among these corporate abusers was stiff - because, unfortunately - each nominee has a shameful track record. Fortunately, the public's demand for corporate accountability is universal, and the voting for Hall of Shame underscores the desire to eradicate shameful business practices."

The three new inductees were selected in part because of the following abuses and threats to society:

ExxonMobil
Even though ExxonMobil is the most profitable corporation in the world, the oil giant is still using its legal clout to avoid paying $4.5 billion in punitive damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. At the same time, ExxonMobil is spending millions to delay action on global warming. As the only oil corporation that still denies the urgency of climate change, ExxonMobil spent nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 funding "junk science" from front groups that confuse the issue. Despite record oil-prices and industry profits, ExxonMobil continues to receive billions of dollars from publicly-funded corporate handouts, in the form of tax breaks and royalty relief (for oil taken from public lands).

Halliburton
At Halliburton, war profiteering is big business. Since the Iraq war began, Halliburton has been awarded more than $20 billion in government contracts. Now Congress is investigating $2.7 billion in waste and overcharging by Halliburton - including bills for three times the meals that U.S. troops actually received in Iraq.  With these sky-high prices comes an embarrassingly low level of service, such as water contaminated with feces that Halliburton delivered to troops for bathing, laundry and even making coffee.  Now, after charging taxpayers billions of dollars for their government contracts, Halliburton has announced plans to cut and run, moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai, which will likely make it easier for the company to pay less U.S. taxes. But Halliburton had been violating U.S. laws for years, operating in Iran until April 2007 under the guise of one of their subsidiaries.

Wal-Mart
The world's largest retailer generates nearly a billion dollars per day in sales. In fact, 2.5 cents of every dollar spent in the United States passes through a Wal-Mart cash register. But the employees who run those cash registers, stock the shelves, and clean the floors aren't sharing in the corporate wealth. Most of the retail giant's workers have an annual income close to the poverty line. Fewer than half are covered by the corporation's health plan. And now Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest sex discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history, involving 1.2 million women who are current or former employees. Meanwhile, Congressional investigators estimate that each Wal-Mart store receives nearly half a million dollars a year in government subsidies. (Wal-Mart has padded its bottom line with more than $1.2 billion in tax breaks and other public subsidies, including deals that allow them to use sales taxes paid by some store customers to pay for improvements to the store property.)

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Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations -- like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria -- to stop abusive actions. For more information visit http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/.