One after another the Republican presidential candidates have come out condemning the Obama administration’s historic deal with Iran today. But two of the GOP field’s top backers might not agree with them.
In a damning report, Bloomberg digs in to the Koch brothers’ business engagements with Iran. Koch Industries flouted laws put into place in 1995 by President Clinton that barred U.S.-Iran trading and sold petrochemical equipment to the Middle Eastern country.
A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries — in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East — has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.
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The company’s products helped build a methanol plant for Zagros Petrochemical Co., a unit of Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Petrochemical Co., the documents show. The facility, in the coastal city of Bandar Assaluyeh, is now the largest methanol plant in the world, according to IHS Inc., an Englewood, Colorado-based provider of chemicals, energy and economic data
After the report surfaced, a Koch Industries spokeswoman was quick to deny the accusations, but the company fired the employee who called attention to the illegal activity. The Koch brothers have promised to funnel nearly $1 billion into 2016 GOP efforts; are the Republican hopefuls criticizing Obama going to hit the Kochs as well?