Also, although nothing was ever proven, it was strongly suggested that Suvee designed and introduced a virus that wiped out the agricultural base of an entire planet in order to gain a competative advantage.
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=utype&tyid=3&cid=30002763
And there's this little gem. . .
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1932&tid=6
Finally, the articles linked under "doing questionable things" in the original post essentially says that Suvee wanted to swap out food production in favor of increased mining, but thought the resulting starvation would be bad for their image. When NOH figured a way to starve Lai Dai employees instead, they jumped at the idea.
I like how the Navy step in and provide a context for a cover-up by suggesting the blight could have come from Federation espionage.
Federation scapegoat is the best scapegoat.
Also, while this PF is excellent background, and we have other chrons to back up the deplorable conditions in the State for the lowly worker, I'd like to suggest that this may not represent the norm, or it was at least partly brought in as pre-TEA fiction to indicate conditions were ripe for a shakedown.
P.S. Boma, I keep waiting for you to take that bite on your fork.