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The ABCD Four
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The world's four largest grain traders, responsible for the vast majority of global corn, soya, and wheat trading and processing, have been accused of large-scale tax evasion in a landmark series of cases being brought against them by the Argentinian government. With the global food system and who controls it under intense scrutiny because of record prices, the legal battle with the "ABCD four," as they are known, has taken on heightened significance.

Ricardo Echegaray, director of Argentina's revenue and customs service, Afip, has given a detailed account of the charges his department is bringing against ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus. "These companies have gone into criminality," Echegaray said. "2008 was when agricultural commodities prices spiked and was the best year for them in prices, yet we could see that the companies with the biggest sales showed very little profit in this country."

Echegaray said he had evidence from his detailed inquiry that all four traders had submitted false declarations of sales and routed profits through tax havens or their headquarters, in contravention of Argentinian tax law. He also alleged they had on occasion used phantom firms to buy grain. He further alleged that they had inflated costs in Argentina to reduce taxable profits or claim tax credits there.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/01/argentina-accuses-grain-traders-tax-evasion/print
Filed under: ADM ATTAC Argentina Bunge Business Capitalism Cargill Corporations Dreyfus Food Taxation Taxes
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