Rennert's company, the Renco Group, is essentially a holding group that owns other companies, such as WCI Steel,
Doe Run, and used to own AM General, manufacturer of the legendary Hummer. Ira Rennert, bought AM General for $133 million in 1992. Ronald Perelman, a Wall Street corporate raider, bought a 70 percent interest in AM General of South Bend, Indiana. The deal reportedly cost close to US$1,000,000,000. The company makes the military Humvee, as well as the Hummer H1 and H2 sold by General Motors. The Renco Group has been criticized for their record on pollution and worker safety.
(snip)
The United States Environmental Protection Agency once placed Renco Group business holdings 10th on the nation's largest polluter list.<1>
In 2001, the Justice Department and EPA took action against Renco, filing suit against the company. The agencies demanded nearly $1 billion in fines, alleging MagCorp (a Renco Metals Inc. subsidiary) dumped toxic waste in ditches and ponds on the Great Salt Lake, Utah.<8> The suit claimed PCB-laced sludge and dust choked the plant's plumbing, wastewater ponds, landfill and ditches, where contaminants were 12 times the allowed limit for accidental release.<8> MagCorp maintained it was exempt from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which requires companies to monitor certain kinds of hazardous waste.<8>
(snip)
Peru
Doe Run, Peru, (a Renco Group holding) operates a smelting plant in La Oroya, Peru, where many of the same environmental violations that were present in Herculaneum, Missouri, are being visited on La Oroya's 12,000 children.<11> The Blacksmith Institute has placed La Oroya on its list of ten most polluted places in the world, along with Chernobyl, Ukraine.<12>
The Peruvian government originally sold the smelter to Doe Run in 1997. The site was already contaminated, but as part of the purchase agreement Doe Run Peru agreed to remedy a list of pollution-related problems by January 2007. Doe Run Peru couldn't meet the deadline and asked for and received a four year extension. In 2005, the company claimed to have cut air pollution by 25 percent and water pollution by 90 percent. Doe Run officials say they have spent more than $107 million to bring the smelter into compliance with Peruvian regulations.<12>
Meanwhile, thousands of children in La Oroya are suffering the effects of lead poisoning as hundreds of tons of toxins continue to spew from the smelting plant. A recent study by St. Louis University scientists found that 97 percent of children in La Oroya suffer from mental and physical deficiencies related to their exposure to polluted air.<12>
(snip)
Ira Rennert and his wife, Ingeborg, contribute to numerous charitable causes, especially those centered around the Jewish faith. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has called Rennert, "a deeply, deeply religious man".
Amongst other charitable giving, Ira and Ingeborg Rennert have:
- Endowed a $2.5 million chair in Jewish studies at Barnard College
- Donated $5 million to establish the Wiesel Center at Boston University
- Given more than $1 million to the World Trade Center Memorial
- Established the Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at New York University
- Endowed the Ira Rennert Professor of Business at Columbia University
- Founded the Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar Ilan University
- Helped restore the Western Heritage Wall in Jerusalem (the visitor's center is called The Ingeborg and Ira
- Leon Rennert Hall of Light)
- Supported Lincoln Center with a $250,000 donation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Rennert
Ira Rennert, Ira Rennert's house