Notwithstanding the moral issues, or indeed the accountability of the CEO in these matters, the legal position extracted from general corporate laws in the USA state:
While a strong presumption in the law exists to protect a parent company from employment claims by subsidiary employees, a parent company seeking to avoid liability should ensure that it does not appear to dominate employee relations of its subsidiary. The employment relationships at the subsidiary level should operate independently and outside of the control of the parent company.
As we may be aware, global corporate laws vary, however in general tend to harmonise to avoid companies "county dodging " to their own advantage, Tax Laws are a completely different scenario.
Now in Europe
(Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 23(2))
1. The conduct of a subsidiary may be imputed to the parent company in particular where, although it has a separate legal personality, the subsidiary does not decide independently upon its own conduct on the market, but carries out, in all material respects, the instructions given to it by the parent company, having regard in particular to the economic, organisational and legal links between those two legal entities. In such a situation, the parent company and its subsidiary form a single economic unit and therefore form a single undertaking. Thus, the fact that a parent company and its subsidiary constitute a single undertaking within the meaning of Article 81 EC enables the Commission to address a decision imposing fines to the parent company, without having to establish the personal involvement of the latter in the infringement.
Should the court adhere to the European laws, then pretty much game over