Better Business Bureau expels Los Angeles chapter, largest in nation

[jsr]

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-better-business-bureau-expels-los-angeles-chapter-largest-in-nation-20130312,0,730305.story

Better Business Bureau expels Los Angeles chapter, largest in nation
By Ricardo Lopez
8:26 AM PDT, March 12, 2013

...The move comes after a 2010 ABC News report which detailed the group's practice of accrediting new members and awarding them inflated ratings in exchange for cash.

In 2010, a group of Los Angeles business owners that had been critical of the BBB conducted a sting operation by paying dues for fake companies, including one named after the Palestinian organization, Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group.

The fake businesses were all accredited and given ratings, according to the ABC News report. Hamas received an A-minus rating.

In 2009, The Times' consumer affairs columnist David Lazarus wrote about chef Wolfgang Puck, who owns several restaurants in Southern California. Puck's non-BBB restaurants were rated poorly, while lesser-known eateries paid roughly $300 in dues and were graded A-plus.

[leftyohiolib]

1. greed will be our undoing