New research from Diggity Marketing has revealed which businesses have been fined the most over the last two decades, as well as the most commonly fined industries and offences leading to fines.
Top 10 Most Fined Companies
Bank of America (US) – $82,737,699,939 over 214 fines.
JPMorgan Chase (US) – $35,744,240,670 over 158 fines
BP (UK) – $29,155,941,533 over 236 fines
Citigroup (US) – $25,450,155,764 over 122 fines
Volkswagen (Germany) – $23,764,268,628 over 51 fines
Wells Fargo (US) – $21,340,036,745 over 181 fines
Deutsche Bank (Germany) – $18,156,533,878 over 59 fines
UBS (Switzerland) – $16,792,800,910 over 83 fines
Goldman Sachs (US) – $16,365,468,987 over 44 fines
Taking the spot for the company which has been fined the most since 2000 was the Bank of America, who have had to pay an incredible $82.7 billion across 214 individual fines over the years, many of which have come about as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and relate to things such as mortgages and financial disclosures.
The biggest single fine that they’ve faced added up to $16.65 billion as part of a settlement to the Department of Justice over the sale of risky, mortgage-backed securities prior to the recession, the largest settlement between a single company and the federal government of all time.
Top 5 Most Fined Industries
Financial Services – $330,904,834,105 over 6,093 fines
Pharmaceuticals -$50,318,398,621 over 890 fines
Oil & Gas – $45,544,460,694 over 5,961 fines
Motor Vehicles – $31,099,611,959 over 744 fines
Utilities & Power Generation – $22,447,575,068 over 1,911 fines
Businesses in the financial sector were by far the most likely to find themselves in trouble, paying a total of over $330 billion over the last 20 years, which is more than all over industries combined. The likes of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are amongst the biggest fines in this sector, as well as other major banks and financial institutions such as Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Goldman Sachs.
Top 5 Most Fined Offenses
Toxic Securities Abuses – $100,892,181,897 over 107 fines
Environmental Violation – $96,252,866,210 over 43,478 fines
Investor Protection Violation – $77,810,804,234 over 5,487 fines
Mortgage Abuses – $56,676,183,058 over 158 fines
False Claims Act and Related – $47,097,771,445 over 2,925 fines
‘Toxic assets’ is a term that was coined during the financial crash and refers to investments that are difficult or impossible to sell due to a collapse in demand for them. Vast amounts of these toxic assets were sold in the build-up to the crisis, with some of the biggest culprits being the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
