Got a blog tip? Contact us

« The Foley-finger no one is pointing | Main | 60 Minutes on Bumfights, brain surgery »

Merck's latest scam

Don't know if anyone caught the news last week about Merck's $1.5 billion in tax fraud. The pharma giant (makers of Vioxx) set up a subsidiary in notorious tax haven Bermuda, transferred ownership of its patents to the subsidiary, then paid cash -- which it deducted as a business expense -- to license the patents from itself. Pretty sneaky? Not sayeth Merck.

Merck says it did nothing wrong and that the deal was simply a way of raising financing for its 1993 acquisition of a pharmacy-beneifits management firm, Medco...

I love that defense. It essentially boils down to: "But Your Honor, we needed to make more money!"