Reply #14: What did Barack's wife know and when did she know it (Mrs. Barack is a director of Dean Foods)

[papau]

A group of small dairy farmers in the southeast U.S. have filed a lawsuit against Dean Foods Co. accusing the company of price fixing. Dean is the largest distributor of milk in the country, and the largest distributor of organic milk in the country through Horizon Organics. The farmers claim that Dean used its influence and multistate network of milk cooperatives to run a monopoly. The farmers in the lawsuit are asking for class-action status, which would allow other regional farmers to join in the case.

-- Organic Consumers Association, 07/11/2007
Source URL: www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6108.cfm

In 2003 two shareholders filed lawsuits against Dean Foods and Horizon Organic Holding Corp. alleging that Dean paid too little for an agreement to acquire the company. The lawsuits, which seek class-action status, also charge that the companies didn't meet their legal obligation to look after the interests of Horizon Organic shareholders. Executives of the companies said the lawsuits were without merit. Dean Foods settled with the shareholders in May 2007.

-- Oakbridge Insurance Services, 05/10/2007
Source URL: dandodiary.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-options-backdating-lawsuit.html

For the second year in a row, shareholders have filed a proposal asking Dean Foods Co. to report to shareholders how it is responding to widespread concern that industrial-scale organic dairies, which supply milk for its Horizon Organic brand, violate consumer trust, seriously jeopardizing share value. Dean Foods has appealled to the SEC for the authority to prevent its shareholders from voting on the proposal.

-- Natural Newswire, 03/26/2007
Source URL: www.naturalnewswire.com/2007/03/investors_conti.html

In 2006, Chairman and CEO Gregg L. Engles earned $11 million in compensation from Dean Foods. This is equivalent to earning $212,028 per week.

-- AFL-CIO, 04/05/2006
Source URL: www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/database.cf...

In November 2004 Dean Foods paid a $400,000 civil penalty to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it may have aided the Fleming Companies to alter revenue statements in order to look like inflated profits. John D. Robinson, a senior executive for Dean Foods, had to pay a $50,000 civil penalty.

-- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 09/14/2004
Source URL: www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-129.htm

Human Rights

In July 2001 seven former and current workers at an Dean Foods dairy in California have filed a lawsuit against the company claiming it failed to protect them from alleged workplace harassment by fellow employees, who they say hung nooses and scrawled Confederate flags, swastikas and KKK graffiti. The workers say that Dean Foods either ignored the complaints or dismissed them. The suit demands unspecified money damages for the racist incidents which date from 1993 until May, 2000 when the workers say that the plant superintendent told them that nooses "are an old Southern custom." Dean Foods and the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement of $3.3 million in February 2003.

-- U.S. District Court, 06/11/2007
Source URL: none available

Dean Foods scored 73 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's 2006 Corporate Equality Index. The Corporate Equality Index is a tool to measure how equitably companies are treating their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.

-- Human Rights Campaign, 09/18/2006
Source URL: www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/Publications1/Corpora...

Dean Foods refused to acknowledge same-sex marriage licenses issued in San Franciso. Requests by employees seeking to add partners to their health care plans were denied.

-- San Francisco Gate, 04/06/2004