As early as 1995, Ernst & Young, the big accounting firm, which was advising Wyeth on foreign executive compensation, warned the company that the required taxes on bonuses were not being paid by it or by its executives, according to a document included in Dr. Rost's lawsuit.
As scores of companies are hemorrhaging jobs, closing plants and slashing compensation, foreign employers have become a lifeline for Ms. Ryan and millions of other Americans.
The United States has held no prize courts since 1899 for the additional reason of its more liberal policy of requisitioning foreign vessels with compensation rather than appropriating them as prizes.
These special investor protections were originally created early in the 20th century, purportedly to help foreign investors obtain compensation for direct expropriation of private property by national governments in developing nations with poorly functioning domestic court systems.
(California and Florida, for example, both offer compensation to foreign visitors).
But Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, reckons that a weaker dollar would spark a rise in real bond yields, as foreign creditors demanded extra compensation for currency risk.
In 2000, the church acknowledged its use of forced labor under Hitler; it has paid about $2.35 million in compensation to foreign workers.
Although employees who are injured on U.S. bases are usually entitled to medical care and disability compensation, few foreign workers are aware of their rights, and fewer still are able to navigate the byzantine process required to receive payment.
The Icelanders have borrowed from the IMF, with their negotiations made more complex by a dispute with Britain and the Netherlands over compensation for foreign depositors in one of its big banks.
The BBC is facing a multimillion-pound bill over its decision to suspend Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, with foreign broadcasters eligible for compensation and rival TV companies poised to poach the embattled presenter.
