Cheaters Never Prosper, Unless They Work In Finance

Cheats never prosper. Or do they?

Search engine optimizer Diggity Marketing tallied fines paid by some of the world’s largest companies between 2000 and 2020. The 100 most-fined companies paid between them equaled $482 billion in 8,938 separate fines. $482 billion.

Almost every one of those companies remains in business today, despite mounting a crime wave that makes the mob look like schoolyard bullies stealing lunch money from weaker children.

Top of the table is Bank of America, fined a total of $82.7 billion for 214 offenses over 20 years. The rest of the top 10 most-fined companies in that period: JPMorgan Chase, BP, Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Overall, most offenses fell into five categories: toxic securities abuse, environmental and investor protection violation, mortgage abuse, and false claims.