CORPORATIONS: Record Ransom

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Officials of Exxon Corp. last week stuffed 142,000 hundred-dollar bills into briefcases and stowed them in a car that was then driven to a rendezvous with Argentine guerrillas of the Marxist People's Revolutionary Army. The $14.2 million payoff earned Exxon the unenviable distinction of having forked over what is probably the highest ransom ever collected by kidnapers. (How much, if any, is covered by insurance [TIME, March 18] is unknown.) The company sought the release of Victor E. Samuelson, 36, a refinery manager who was abducted on Dec. 6. At week's end Samuelson still had not been set free, but the ransom may have saved his life: the kidnapers had earlier notified Exxon that they had sentenced him to death for the "crimes" of multinational corporations.