[CTC] Federal Penalties Imposed on Largest Corporations Plunged During Trump’s First Year

[Manuel Perez Rocha]

https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/releases/federal-
penalties-imposed-largest-corporations-plunged-during-trumps-first-year

3/02/2018

Washington, DC, February 13, 2018—Federal penalties imposed on the largest
U.S. companies for all kinds of misconduct fell sharply during the first 12
months of the Trump administration, with combined fines and settlements
dropping to a fraction of the levels seen during the Obama Administrations.
The Fortune 100 list of the very largest publicly traded U.S. corporations
paid $1.1 billion in penalties to federal regulatory agencies and the
Justice Department during Trump’s first year, compared to an annual average
of more than $17 billion during the Obama years.


These findings come from the latest information collected by Violation
Tracker, the country’s first wide-ranging database of corporate crime and
misconduct. It covers banking, consumer protection, false claims,
environmental, wage and hour, unfair labor practice, health, safety,
employment discrimination, price-fixing, bribery and other civil and
criminal cases. Violation Tracker, a free public service produced by the
Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First, is available at:
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/violation-tracker.


“Along with the massive tax cut, the Trump administration has given the
largest corporations billions of additional dollars of benefits in the form
of reduced penalties for misconduct,” said Good Jobs First Research
Director Philip Mattera, who leads the work on the database.


Mattera acknowledged that the Obama Fortune 100 penalty totals reflected
unprecedented settlements with the largest banks for their role in the
financial meltdown. Those amounts peaked during the middle years of the
Obama era. “Yet Trump’s $1.1 billion total through January 19 is still far
below the annual average of more than $9 billion for the Fortune 100 during
Obama’s final two years in office,” he added. “It also trails behind the $3
billion total during Obama’s first year.”


To assist users in making comparisons, Violation Tracker has just added a
new feature that allows searches to be limited to a specific
administration. This can be combined with the numerous other search options
relating to industry group, offense type, agency, penalty amount, etc.
Violation Tracker now contains more than 300,000 entries from more than 40
federal regulatory agencies and all divisions of the Justice Department.


Good Jobs First, based in Washington, DC, is a non-profit, non-partisan
resource center promoting accountability in economic development. Its
Corporate Research Project provides research resources for organizations
and individuals concerned about all forms of corporate accountability. The
initial 2015 version of Violation Tracker was made possible by a grant from
the Bauman Family Foundation.

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Manuel Pérez-Rocha
Associate Fellow
Institute for Policy Studies
1301 Connecticut Ave NW #600, Washington, DC 20036
*More than 50 years of turning ideas into action! *
Cel. 240-838-6623
www.ips-dc.org
http://www.ips-dc.org/issues/trade/
Follow me on Twitter @ManuelPerezIPS
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