In this article we are going to list the 15 biggest corporate fines in history.
Take a look at major companies and their history, and you’ll see that they have more often than not flouted rules, and again, more often than not, gotten away with it as well. When a company is growing, it has to be really mindful of all the applicable laws and regulations which apply, which can sometimes be quite confusing, which is why most companies have separate legal departments to take care of such stuff when it happens.
However, unfortunately, when a company becomes quite dominant, it is able to flout rules with abandon and evade the eye of the regulators as well as their ire. Take the 2008 financial crisis for example. The entire global economy came to a standstill, with many countries undergoing recessions mainly due banks being able to act with impunity. Before the financial crisis, regulations in the US were such that banks allowed more and more consumers to take loans for buying houses and mortgages, offering low interest rates initially which would sky-rocket upon default. The banks didn’t carry out the detailed checks necessary before offering such major loans, as this was padding their numbers and making them look good, and no one expected the housing market in the United States to fall. Many banks also started buying mortgage assets, where they were able to charge high amounts of fees while also receiving high margins from what were essentially sub-prime mortgages. These subprime mortgages were then bundled into a financial instrument known as collateralized debt obligations which were then sold across the world. This meant that banks other than the United States were involved as well, and when customers (who could never have been able to repay the loan) started to inevitably default on their mortgages, these banks started losing money and since foreign banks were involved, this led to a global recession, leading to the closure of some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States at the time, including Lehmann Brothers and Bears Stearns, which was purchased by JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). Also, since US consumption was one of the main factors behind the growth in consumption globally, other countries depended on the economy of the US, which declined during the financial crisis, and in turn saw the entire world being affected.
Galyna Motizova/Shutterstock.com
However, even after all was said and done, federal institutions across the world spent trillions of dollars in an unprecedented move to rescue these financial institutions, leading to the coining of the term ‘too big to fail’, which is mostly applied to major banks. This is said to be the largest liquidity injection into the credit market in history, which shows that even after the banks failed due to their own policies, greed and not following proper standards and procedures, instead of being fined and brought to justice immediately, they received trillions of dollars to try and boost the economy, a lot of which was then spent on bonuses for executives. This was brought to special attention by American International Group (NYSE:AIG) which had received bailouts but then proceeded to pay more than $218 million in bonuses to executives, which resulted in widespread condemnation. It is true that later on these banks were investigated and had to pay major fines but the fact that these are still some of the biggest corporations engaging in the same activities shows that the fines aren’t having the intended effect.
However, it should be said that ever since the recession, and of course it took the world’s economy sinking to wake up regulators, the laws have been modified and regulators have been quite strict on banking and financial institutions, which is why you’ll see many financial services companies in our list. In fact, the United States is now leading the charge and fines worth billions of dollars have been imposed. Europe isn’t far behind however, and often implements laws which are more restrictive than the United States, which is why some of the major companies in the US have drawn the ire of European regulators and have received massive fines in this respect as well.
The above example goes to show that major companies can often escape unscathed and unpunished even when their defiance of rules and regulations result in unmitigated disasters. Moving away from the banking sector, we can see the same in oil companies who are often engaged in controversial practices and try to save a few bucks by not following proper procedure, which is why we see many environmental disasters on their hands, which in turn might or might not be fined. But the thing is, for a company whose annual revenues are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, a fine of even a few hundred million, which seems like a massive amount, doesn’t really do much to discourage them. And a fine going into hundreds of millions of dollars itself is a rarity; most fines for such companies are worth a few million and barely cause a dent in their financials or their profitability.
While the biggest corporate fines in history are worth several billion dollars in total, the impact of the fine and the benefits of the fine are debatable. These companies seem to know that they are too big to go down, until something absolutely unprecedented takes place and hence, while battling any legal issues that may come with their armies of lawyers, won’t really mind paying these fines since they’ll still make more money than most countries in the world and fly on their private jets and take our their million dollar yachts. In fact, this is precisely why the GameStop saga which has seen hedge funds suffer losses worth billions of dollars for shorting 140% of the stock has such broad mainstream appeal. It is David vs Goliath, with David emerging victorious and causing more damage to the hedge funds in less than a month than most major fines have been able to manage. But for now, let’s take a look at the biggest corporate fines in history, starting with number 15:
15. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Most of you who use flagship phones of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung will be familiar with Qualcomm chips. It was fined by the European Union to the tune of $1.2 billion for entering an arrangement to be the exclusive supplier of in Apple’s products. The decision is still being appealed.
Pixabay/Public Domain
14. HSBC
HSBC, in 2012, forfeited $1.256 billion to the US Department of Justice for its role in the violation of US sancations and anti-money laundering regulations.
Northfoto/Shutterstock.com
12. Intel (NYSE:INTC)
Multiple EU fines make our list, with Intel being accused of abusing its dominance in the semiconductor market and engaging in anti-competitive practices, resulting in a fine of $1.44 billion.
Pixabay/Public Domain
11. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)
The only company to make our list of the biggest corporate fines in history twice, Google was fined by the European Union in 2017 for $2.7 billion for abusing its dominance in the search engine industry and promoting its own services.
Pixabay/Public Domain
10. Credit Suisse
Swiss banks are well-known for the secrecy, which actually came back to bite Credit Suisse, which was found guilty of conspiring to help Americans evade taxes, resulting a fine of $2.5 billion
pichetw/Shutterstock.com
9. GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK)
It is one of the biggest pharma companies in the world. GSK in 2012, pleaded guilty for promoting drugs for unapproved uses, kickbacks to physicians and failure in reporting breaches in safety data, resulting in the biggest healthcare fraud in the history of the US, and a $3 billion file, which is still the largest settlement by a pharmaceutical company.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. Google
Google is one of the most well-known companies in the world, though it is also often accused of anti-competitive behavior. The company was found guilty of favoring its own apps over that of competitors, resulting in the largest fine outside the US of $5 billion.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest investment banks in the world, and in the buildup to the 2008 crisis, misled investors regarding the value of mortgage backed securities, while betting against them itself, and earned the ire of the Department of Justice, and ended up paying more than $5 billion in 2016.
Roman Tiraspolsky/Shutterstock.com
7. Anadarko Petroleum
Anadarko Petroleum may no longer exist now, but the company made headlines in 2014 when it paid $5.15 billion in a settlement against environmental contamination, in a case brought by the US Department of Justice.
Copyright: 1971yes / 123RF Stock Photo
6. Citigroup (NYSE:C)
The American company is one of several in our list who were investigated and fined for their actions resulting in the Great Recession, where the company misled investors into thinking that worthless mortgage backed securities were actually valuable, preceding the financial crisis and ended up paying $7 billion.
5. BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is a French bank, which attracted the attention of the US Department of Justice because it violated US regulations, by laundering money from Cuba, Iran and Sudan of more than $100 billion, even though they were sanctioned companies. The bank ended up paying $8.9 billion, which is the highest fine paid for violating US sanctions by a distance.
BalkansCat/Shutterstock.com
4. JP Morgan Chase
The biggest bank in the United States was also heavily involved in the 2008 financial crisis, and investigations into the bank’s actions began back in 2013 by the Department of Justice. The company was found guilty in its role in selling mortgage backed securities as if they were fine, and was fined $13 billion as a result, of which $9 billion were penalties and fines, while the rest was consumer relief.
pcruciatti / Shutterstock.com
3. Volkswagen
Volkswagen was the biggest car manufacturer in the world until 2020, when Toyota Motors (NYSE:TM) overtook it amidst both companies reducing production due to the pandemic. The company was investigated in 2015, by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which found that the company had manipulated emission tests to show that they met US standards, when in reality the emissions were several times higher. The company ended up having to pay $14.7 billion for its role in the scandal, while it has cost the company more than $33 billion overall.
Pixabay/Public Domain
2. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Bank of America is one of the biggest financial institutions in the entire world, and the second biggest in the United States. It operates in all 50 states and 40 other countries as well, even though it has attracted a lot of controversy over its role in the 2008 financial crisis which I discussed in the intro earlier. The Department of Justice ordered the company to pay $16.65 billion in 2014 over its role in the Great Recession, of which $7 billion was categorized as consumer relief while the remaining $9.65 billion was categorized as penalties to be paid to the federal government as well as the states. At the time, it was the largest corporate fine in history.
Pixabay/Public Domain
1. BP (NYSE:BP)
Topping the list of the 5 biggest corporate fines in history is of course BP. The oil company is among the biggest companies in the entire world, and was responsible for the biggest oil spill in history as well, which is now known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The incident took place over a decade ago in 2010, where 2.9 million barrels were spilled and efforts made to contain the spread of the spill failing. The spill continued for months, and devastated the environment in the region, despite extensive cleanup efforts which took place. Marine life died at record rates and in 2013, it was reported that infant dolphins died six times faster than the normal rate, while many other studies found stunted growth and deformities in marine life as a result of the spill, showcasing just how devastating it was.
BP was blamed for negligence in the ensuing investigations over the oil spill, and ended up paying more than $4.5 billion just for the criminal charges, which is the largest penalty ever for criminal charges in the history of the United States. In July 2016, BP was ordered to pay a historic amount worth $20.8 billion, which as of now, is still the highest corporate fine in history. Overall, as of 2018, penalties, charges and clean up costs had resulted in the company spending at least $65 billion, and yet it is still easily one of the biggest companies in the world by revenue.
See also: 15 biggest public companies in the world heading into 2021 and 15 largest biotech companies in the world
Vytautas Kielaitis / Shutterstock.com
.
Suggested articles:
- 16 largest financial services companies in the world
- 15 biggest companies that don’t pay taxes
- 15 biggest companies that aren’t profitable
Disclosure: No position. 15 biggest corporate fines in history is originally published at Insider Monkey.
