Mixed Emotions: ITT & WestGate

An announcement the other day about ITT Corporation opening in WestGate is met with mixed emotions. Greene County certainly needs the 220 jobs, which will be supposedly created; however, after doing just a little research on the Internet, ITT has a blemished past to say the least.

For example, they sold military secrets, resulting in the largest penalty ever assessed by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Strangely, the DOJ allowed them to use half of the fined amount to develop new technology and subsequently provide the rights to the government in lieu. Read more on the whole situation here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_192.html

Skipping to environmental issues, ITT apparently has a checkered past in that realm too. In their last annual report filed with the SEC, they disclosed the following (all amounts are in millions, unless otherwise stated):

“As of December 31, 2007, the Company is responsible, or is alleged to be responsible, for approximately 90 ongoing environmental investigation and remediation sites in various countries… The low range estimate for its environmental liabilities is $94.6 and the high range estimate for those liabilities is $213.2."

I realize ITT is a large corporation, and admittedly I need to do some further research to see how other large companies compare; however, these figures seem huge even for a larger company.