If I stole this much money, polluted the environment to this degree, or murdered people on this scale, wouldn't the government put me in jail? If corporations are people, why are they above the law? The point is that they are not people nor have they ever been people. They shouldn't get it both ways. I wish we could all afford this much justice. Money has it's privileges. What's in your wallet? Probably not a get out of jail free card. Current Biggest DOJ Fine: $4.5 billion – BP – November 2012: BP’s fines for Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico included what was the biggest fine ever levied by the Department of Justice: $4 billion. That came along with $525 million more to the SEC for civil penalties. The DOJ penalty also had an accompanying guilty plea to 11 felony counts of “seaman’s manslaughter” relating to the deaths aboard the drilling rig, admitting that its workers were negligent when they misinterpreted a key well safety test. Meanwhile, the oil giant earlier in 2012 agreed to pay victims an estimated $7.8 billion and have in total booked charges of about $42 billion for cleanup and settlement payments. It is in a court trial over environmental penalties that could total billions more. Pharmaceutical Industry $3 billion –GlaxoSmithKline – July 2012: In what was billed as the largest healthcare settlement with the DOJ ever, the drugmaker paid $3 billion and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of illegally marketing drugs and withholding safety data from U.S. regulators. Included in the allegations were that Dr. Drew Pinsky, famed for co-hosting sex-advice show “Loveline” was given payments and then pitched a Glaxo anti-depressant on air. $2.3 billion — Pfizer Inc. — 2009: The pharmaceutical giant pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge of illegally marketing the painkiller Bextra and paid $2.3 billion for illegally promoting the sale of that and other medicines for unapproved uses. $1.6 billion — Abbott Laboratories — 2012: The drug maker agreed to pay $1.6 billion and to plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor violation of a federal drug law following allegations that the company improperly promoted antiseizure drug Depakote for unauthorized uses. $1.42 billion — Eli Lilly & Co. — 2009 : Eli Lilly agreed to pay $1.42 billion to settle a probe into alleged improper marketing of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. $950 million — Merck & Co. — 2011: Merck agreed to pay $950 million and plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge to resolve government allegations that the company illegally promoted its former painkiller Vioxx and deceived the government about the drug’s safety. Banking Industry $8.5 billion — Bank of America – June 2011: The bank has paid billions in settlements since the financial crisis, most of them tied to the mortgages that where churned out by Countrywide before it’s collapse and rescue by Bank of America. The biggest settlement it reached, for $8.5 billion, was not with the government but with a group of mortgage bond holders including BlackRock, Pimco and the New York Federal Reserve. The settlement is still awaiting a judge’s approval. $25 billion — Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Ally Financial Inc. — 21012: The Five banks agreed to pay $25 billion in penalties and borrower relief over alleged foreclosure processing abuses. The deal represented the largest government-industry settlement since the tobacco deal. $9.3 billion — Bank of America, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan and 10 others — 2013: Thirteen banks reached an agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve to pay $9.3 billion in cash and noncash relief, including loan assistance, to homeowners over alleged foreclosure abuses. $1.9 billion — HSBC Holdings – HSBC agreed to pay $1.9 billion to U.S. authorities over deficiencies in its antimoney-laundering controls. U.S. officials hailed the settlement as the largest penalty ever under the Bank Secrecy Act. The agreement between the U.S. and HSBC also represented the third time since 2003 the bank agreed to U.S. orders to cease lax conduct and correct failed policies. $1.5 billion — UBS AG — 2012: UBS agreed to pay $1.5 billion and acknowledged charges that it had manipulated interbank lending rates including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. It was the biggest fine so far in that scandal. $1.4 billion — 10 Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan — 2003: The 10 firms agreed to pay penalties of roughly $1.4 billion to settle charges of conflicts of interest between their research and investment banking sectors. Other Corporate Settlements: $246 billion — Tobacco industry combined — 1998: The nation’s 50 state attorneys general reached a comprehensive settlement with the five largest tobacco makers in the country, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett & Meyers. The pact called for the tobacco companies to pay out $246 billion over the course of 25 years ended 2025. The companies had reached earlier agreements with some states and then reached a wide settlement with the remaining 46, the agreements combined for $246 billion. $900 million – Exxon – 1991 – The oil company agreed to settle all federal and state civil claims resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 24, 1989 with a payment of $900 million and the possibility for $100 million more. Three decades later, the sides continued to argue about the $100 million more. $1.6 billion — Siemens — 2008: Siemens agreed to pay a total of $1.6 billion in fines and penalties to U.S. and German authorities to resolve allegations of a bribery scheme across several countries to win business. Antitrust: $1.5 billion – Intel – 2009 – The chip maker was walloped with the biggest antitrust fine ever by the European Union. The company, at the time, controlled about 80% of the world’s computer chips. Intel is still appealing the fine and has said the EU is mistaken. The largest U.S. antitrust fine ever has been $500 million, levied twice, including last year in a case against LCD television maker AU Optronics Corporation of Taiwan. UPDATE: BP paid DOJ $4 billion and the SEC another $525 million. An earlier version of this post only mentioned the DOJ.
