Georgia-Pacific

WHILE GEORGIA-Pacific Corporation's 1991 fine for tax evasion set an Atlanta, Georgia, record for corporate criminal penalties, its use of asbestos posed larger problems for this forest products company and its former customers. In October 1991, Georgia-Pacific pled guilty to tax evasion, promising to pay $21 million in fines and back taxes.

In 1984, the company had claimed a $24 million charitable contribution when it donated the 5,360-[Page 355] acre Santa Fe, New Mexico, swamp to the Suwannee River Water Management District. The value of the land was approximately $2 million.

More significant is the sum of $181 million that Georgia-Pacific paid for asbestos-related litigation in 2002. An investigative series by the company's hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, revealed that, although the company knew by ...