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In today’s evolving corporate landscape, certain companies consistently grapple with legal and regulatory challenges. From payday loan providers to life insurance firms, these industries often raise concerns regarding consumer fairness and ethical practices. While navigating corporate hierarchies can be challenging, the repercussions faced by these companies often extend beyond internal management issues.
To shed light on corporate misconduct, we examined the latest data from Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, which highlights the companies that have incurred the highest fines in recent years, specifically focusing on the most significant offenders.
“Violation Tracker is the premier national database on corporate misconduct. It encompasses various areas including banking, consumer protection, environmental violations, and employment discrimination among others, compiled from over 40 federal regulatory agencies and the Justice Department since 2000.”
Based on the aggregated penalty amounts for 2022, here are the companies that faced the most significant financial repercussions:
- Royal Bank of Scotland ($4,900,750,000)
- Wells Fargo ($3,122,608,441)
- Barclays ($2,000,000,000)
- ZTE ($1,400,000,000)
- Societe Generale ($1,329,126,916)
- HSBC ($866,600,000)
- AmerisourceBergen ($625,000,000)
- U.S. Bancorp ($617,400,000)
- Verizon Communications ($614,300,000)
- Citigroup ($475,797,475)
In total, companies within the Good Jobs First database collectively paid an astounding $22,727,958,383 in fines, with the top ten companies alone accounting for $15,951,582,832, or approximately 70% of the total fines.
This illustrates a striking trend in corporate accountability, where a small number of companies are responsible for a significant proportion of the penalties imposed.
Summary of Findings
- Royal Bank of Scotland, the company facing the highest fines, contributed significantly to overall penalties with $4,900,750,000.
- 7 out of the top 10 fined companies belong to the banking sector, raising questions about industry practices.
- *Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Healthcare Services emerged as the three largest industries by total fines.
- *Mining and minerals (500), retailing (148), and building materials (141) led in the number of fines.
- The most notable collector of fines was the Justice Department Civil Division.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the highest number of fines—10,034.
Methodology
For this analysis, we utilized data from the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker for the year 2022.
We aggregated the “Penalty Amount” at the parent company level, or the company name if no parent was available, across a dataset of 12,477 companies.
Results were sorted from the highest total penalties to the lowest. We also categorized the data by “Major Industry of Parent” (available for about 15% of companies) and government “Agency” (available for over 99% of penalties).
Below, you’ll find a further breakdown by industry, agency, and the top 100 companies.
Industries With The Largest Amount of Fines in 2022
| Rank | Industry | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Financial Services | $15,103,985,830 |
| 2 | Telecommunications | $2,089,654,431 |
| 3 | Healthcare Services | $793,021,485 |
| 4 | Wholesalers | $626,088,937 |
| 5 | Pharmaceuticals | $500,425,483 |
| 6 | Oil And Gas | $392,186,790 |
| 7 | Electrical And Electronic Equipment | $376,994,730 |
| 8 | Business Services | $169,205,931 |
| 9 | Retailing | $145,838,569 |
| 10 | Miscellaneous Manufacturing | $107,322,841 |
Agencies With Largest Amount of Fines in 2022
| Rank | Agency | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justice Department Civil Division | $9,328,658,000 |
| 2 | U.S. Attorney-Eastern District of New York | $2,009,315,000 |
| 3 | Bureau of Industry and Security | $1,401,174,600 |
| 4 | U.S. Attorney-Southern District of New York | $1,287,475,000 |
| 5 | Justice Department Criminal Division | $1,015,831,175 |
| 6 | Securities and Exchange Commission | $922,930,627 |
| 7 | Commodity Futures Trading Commission | $916,515,827 |
| 8 | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | $895,222,001 |
| 9 | Federal Communications Commission | $883,868,855 |
| 10 | Office of the Comptroller of the Currency | $825,707,245 |
100 Companies With The Largest Amount of Fines in 2022
| Rank | Company | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Bank Of Scotland | $4,900,750,000 |
| 2 | Wells Fargo | $3,122,608,441 |
| 3 | Barclays | $2,000,000,000 |
| 4 | ZTE | $1,400,000,000 |
| 5 | Societe Generale | $1,329,126,916 |
| 6 | HSBC | $866,600,000 |
| 7 | AmerisourceBergen | $625,000,000 |
| 8 | U.S. Bancorp | $617,400,000 |
| 9 | Verizon Communications | $614,300,000 |
| 10 | Citigroup | $475,797,475 |
| 11 | Rabobank | $419,201,259 |
| 12 | Johnson & Johnson | $360,000,000 |
| 13 | Panasonic | $280,400,000 |
| 14 | Davita Healthcare Partners | $270,000,000 |
| 15 | Community Health Systems | $260,000,000 |
| 16 | BNP Paribas | $180,000,000 |
| 17 | Deutsche Bank | $177,650,000 |
| 18 | Petrobras | $171,547,191 |
| 19 | Chevron | $153,098,597 |
| 20 | Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu | $149,599,057 |
| 21 | Moneygram International | $125,000,000 |
| 22 | Bank Of America | $106,876,723 |
| 23 | JPMorgan Chase | $105,596,504 |
| 24 | Capital One Financial | $100,000,000 |
| 25 | Legg Mason | $98,700,000 |
| 26 | Zurcher Kantonalbank | $98,500,000 |
| 27 | Aegon | $97,600,000 |
| 28 | SK Holdings | $90,384,872 |
| 29 | Beaumont Health | $84,500,000 |
| 30 | Best Insurance Contracts, Inc | $82,000,000 |
| 31 | Credit Suisse | $81,729,916 |
| 32 | Goldman Sachs | $68,840,000 |
| 33 | Toyobo | $66,000,000 |
| 34 | American Broadband & Telecommunications Company | $63,463,500 |
| 35 | Prime Healthcare Services Inc. | $61,750,000 |
| 36 | Basler Kantonalbank | $60,400,000 |
| 37 | Nippon Chemi-Con | $60,000,000 |
| 38 | Abbott Laboratories | $58,200,000 |
| 39 | GS Caltex Corporation | $57,500,000 |
| 40 | ICAP | $50,000,000 |
| 41 | Dollar Tree | $46,353,266 |
| 42 | Aurora Loan Services, LLC | $41,000,000 |
| 43 | Deutsche Telekom | $40,000,000 |
| 44 | Public Service Enterprise | $39,439,000 |
| 45 | Affordable Enterprises Of Arizona | $37,500,000 |
| 46 | Altaba | $35,000,000 |
| 47 | Walgreens Boots Alliance | $34,525,868 |
| 48 | Canada Drugs, Rockley Ventures, And River East Supplies | $34,000,000 |
| 49 | Northrop Grumman | $31,650,000 |
| 50 | TCF Financial Corp. | $31,000,000 |
| 51 | Western Dubuque Biodiesel LLC | $31,000,000 |
| 52 | Medtronic | $30,900,000 |
| 53 | Bestcare Laboratory Services LLC | $30,571,635 |
| 54 | Signature Healthcare | $30,008,125 |
| 55 | FLIR Systems | $30,000,000 |
| 56 | Mega International Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. | $29,000,000 |
| 57 | Polaris Industries | $27,250,000 |
| 58 | Sanofi | $25,200,000 |
| 59 | NGL Energy Partners | $25,020,235 |
| 60 | Abercrombie & Fitch | $25,000,000 |
| 61 | Kalispell Regional Healthcare System | $24,000,000 |
| 62 | Benevis LLC | $23,900,000 |
| 63 | Pfizer | $23,850,000 |
| 64 | Healogics, Inc. | $22,908,162 |
| 65 | Nucor | $22,562,850 |
| 66 | UPMC | $20,750,000 |
| 67 | Paramedics Plus, LLC | $20,649,000 |
| 68 | Southwest Airlines | $20,596,911 |
| 69 | Tesla, Inc. | $20,144,663 |
| 70 | Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Limited | $20,000,000 |
| 71 | Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (On Behalf Of Placer Mining Corporation) | $20,000,000 |
| 72 | Clovis Oncology | $20,000,000 |
| 73 | Williams Advisory Group, LLC | $19,450,034 |
| 74 | DataConnex | $18,715,405 |
| 75 | PNC Financial Services | $18,707,245 |
| 76 | Banner Health | $18,000,000 |
| 77 | Kellogg | $16,750,000 |
| 78 | Moody’s | $16,250,000 |
| 79 | UBS | $15,006,246 |
| 80 | Elemetal LLC | $15,000,000 |
| 81 | Health Quest Systems, Inc. Et Al. | $14,700,000 |
| 82 | North American Power Group Ltd. | $14,400,000 |
| 83 | Bon Secours Mercy Health | $14,250,000 |
| 84 | Hydra Group | $14,000,001 |
| 85 | Intercontinental Exchange Group | $14,000,000 |
| 86 | United Technologies | $13,916,247 |
| 87 | Lennar | $13,254,951 |
| 88 | Kooima & Kaemingk Commodities, Inc. | $13,170,857 |
| 89 | Post Acute Medical, LLC | $13,168,000 |
| 90 | MPLX LP | $13,028,000 |
| 91 | Uber Technologies | $13,000,000 |
| 92 | SoftBank | $13,000,000 |
| 93 | Suncoke Energy | $12,500,250 |
| 94 | Bank Of China | $12,500,000 |
| 95 | Angiodynamics | $12,500,000 |
| 96 | Viasat Inc. | $12,177,631 |
| 97 | Kindred Healthcare | $12,027,127 |
| 98 | Commerzbank | $12,000,000 |
| 99 | Maruyasu Industries Co. Ltd. | $12,000,000 |
| 100 | ITG Inc. | $12,000,000 |
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
