GE Gets Pranked by Activist Group

So the big news of the day was the announcement by General Electric that it would be "gifting its entire 2010 tax refund, worth $3.2 billion, to the US Treasury," and not only that, but that it would "adopt a host of new policies that secure its position as a leader in corporate social responsibility."

The move, as reported by the Associated Press, was made to stave off "criticism over the amount of taxes pays, and to further improve its reputation, the company "plans to phase out tax havens over 5 years and said it will create one job in the US for each new job it creates overseas."

Fascinating turn of events... of course, none of it is true, besides the fact that the AP thought it was true, at least until they withdrew the story (but not before other news-gathering outfits, such as USA TODAY, went ahead and ran with the story). It was all part of a hoax perpetrated by a group calling itself US Uncut.

According to US Uncut spokesperson Carl Gibson, "This action showed us how the world could work. For a brief moment people believed that the biggest corporate tax dodger had a change of heart and actually did the right thing. But the only way anything like this is really going to happen is if we change the laws that allow corporate tax avoidance in the first place."

Of course, some might say what US Uncut did was illegal, or at the very least no more than a goofy stunt along the order of adolescent kids ordering 10 pizzas to be delivered to the mean old neighbor down the street. Still, if nothing else, it got US Uncut exactly what it wanted: some notoreity.