FINES/ settlements

bak 1019

see Crimes

see crypto currency

see corp crime 621 see corp bad actors

this category is shorthand for corporate bad behavior (but also maddening b/c they negotiate them down, and often do not admit responsibility)

aha: rw present regulations as mere burden but can prevent damage thus cost/ loss of life and fines can be used for good/commons, thus leverage.

TOOL?

BS? punked?

http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/gary-ruskin-and-jon-entine-tangle-over-the-gmo-corporate-connection/

4/16

Corporate Crime Reporter,

please give us a call at 202.468.8868 or write to us at:

russellmokhiber@gmail.com

or at:

Corporate Crime Reporter

1209 National Press Building

Washington, D.C. 20045

Columbia/HCA: Scott served as the CEO and co-founder of Columbia/HCA, a massive hospital and health care network. [1, 2, 3]
Record Settlement: Under his leadership, the company became the center of a federal investigation into Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Columbia/HCA ultimately pleaded guilty and paid a historic $1.7 billion fine to the U.S. government. [1, 2]

-=-=

CZ BITCOIN MONEY LAUNDER ?

-=-=

MURRAY COAL

August 6, 2007

After the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse, which led to the death of nine miners and rescuers, Murray Energy faced an initial assessment of $1.639 million in fines for alleged “flagrant, reckless and highly negligent violations of mine safety law,” *NPR*reported. The settlement was reduced to $949,351, which still made it the third-largest fine ever levied against a coal company, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.¹³⁹

The settlement included Murray Energy’s acceptance of four violations “contributory” to the two fatal mine collapses at Crandall in August 2007:

an 11 24

Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen feigned surprise on Wednesday over President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"Oh look, another billionaire has made his way into Trump's Cabinet," said the group, noting Lutnick is also a promoter of cryptocurrency and a Trump megadonor. "The conflicts of interest are almost too many to count."

Among the conflicts are Lutnick's involvement in the crypto industry and federal and state cases against Cantor Fitzgerald.

In addition to running the Wall Street firm, Lutnick is a banker for the "stablecoin" company Tether; purchasers receive a Tether token for $1, with the proceeds invested in reserves and Treasury bonds managed by Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald.

As Public Citizennoted, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in 2021 that Tether and another crypto firm "recklessly and unlawfully covered up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines."

The company is also reportedly under federal investigation over alleged criminal violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.

Public Citizen also said that while co-chairing Trump's transition team, Lutnick "may also have helped arrange a meeting between Trump and Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong," who "helped steer a record amount of political spending from the crypto industry into the 2024 election."

Crypto firms poured over $119 million into directly influencing the 2024 federal elections, Public Citizenfound in August, making the industry's spending second only to that of fossil fuel companies.

As Politico reported in October, even other members of Trump's inner circle have accused Lutnick of using his transition team co-chair position to take meetings on Capitol Hill and "talk about matters impacting his investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald—including high-stakes regulatory matters involving its cryptocurrency business."

Lutnick's nomination, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, serves as a reminder that "Trump serves the oligarchy, not the people."

"Debris from crypto's political spending tsunami will jam up more halls in Washington than ever before if Lutnick is confirmed as secretary of commerce," said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. "The president-elect, who once correctly called bitcoin a scam, now surrounds himself with even more crypto enablers. Cryptocurrency won't return good jobs to the heartland or reduce food prices; it will only thin the wallets of those vulnerable to a now government-legitimized con."

Government watchdog Accountable.US pointed to more than $19 million in political donations Lutnick has made since 2009, nearly all of which went to GOP candidates and political action committees. He contributed $6 million to Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., in 2024 alone.

"Howard Lutnick's questionable qualifications to lead the Department of Commerce begin and end with his loyalty to the president-elect," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk.

Tether isn't the only Lutnick-linked company that's been investigated for wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Cantor Fitzgerald $1.4 million in 2023, saying the company repeatedly failed "to identify and report customers who qualified as large traders." The company also agreed to pay $16 million in fines to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for using unauthorized communication channels.

Should Lutnick be confirmed as commerce secretary, Accountable.US said a "major regulatory conflict" could arise due to a dispute between the BGC Group, a spin-off brokerage of Cantor Fitzegerald, and futures and commodities exchange CME Group, over a competing trading platform BGC Group is launching.

"Lutnick's company's violations resulting in financial regulator fines and millions in right-wing political donations shows that political devotion takes precedence over actual experience to do the job in Trump's Cabinet," said Carrk.

Trump campaigned as a champion of working people as he railed against high grocery prices. As The New Republicreportedon Tuesday, Lutnick has showered Trump's plan for across-the-board tariffs with effusive praise—even as leading economists warn the plan to impose tariffs on foreign imports will pass higher costs onto consumers, not foreign countries.

"In September, Lutnick told CNBC that 'tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use—we need to protect the American worker,'" wrote Edith Olmsted. "Lutnick also gushed about tariffs at Trump's fascistic rally in Madison Square Garden last month, claiming that America was better off 100 years ago, when it had 'no income tax and all we had was tariffs.' His high praise for tariffs came even as he admitted Americans would face higher prices as a direct result."

Lutnick's nomination, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), "is a win for the billionaire class at the expense of working people."

"The across-the-board tariff plan," she said, "is a distraction from the MAGA scam to extend tax giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires like Howard Lutnick."

===

$125K fine

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/david-schweikert-fec/

---

8 24 mma

on August 15, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris began outlining her economic agenda, which includes fighting excessive prices by enacting a federal ban on price gouging.

Most states already have some kind of law banning price gouging in at least some circumstances, but Harris’ new proposal would create the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries and empower the Federal Trade Commission to enforce these new consumer protections.

Yet Fox News and others in the media reacted by falsely mischaracterizing Harris’ proposal as setting price controls, denying that price gouging exists in the food industry, and ranting about communism.

## Harris’ plan specifically mentions anti-monopoly actions and enhanced authority for the FTC and state attorneys general to combat price fixing, not price controls

- Bloomberg White House reporter Josh Wingrove posted a Harris campaign email previewing her plan that makes no mention of price controls. What the announcement did mention was “authority for the FTC and state attorneys general to investigate and impose harsh penalties” on corporations engaging in price gouging, “resources for the federal government to identify and take on price-fixing and other anti-competitive practices” in the food industry, and support for small businesses to break into the food industry to take on monopolies. Twitter/X, [8/15/24]

- Washington Post economics reporter Jeff Stein posted another Harris campaign announcement that cited state price gouging laws and laid out plans to grant more authority to the FTC and state attorneys general and increase competition in the food industry. There was no mention of price controls. Twitter/X, [8/15/24]

- In a press release, the Harris-Walz campaign detailed its price gouging initiative to empower regulators and state attorneys general and to tackle predatory price gouging. In an August 16 press release fully detailing the Harris-Walz campaign’s broader economic agenda, the campaign reiterated that, if elected, Harris will work to “advance the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” stipulating that these policies would be aimed at “big corporations” that “unfairly exploit consumers” and that the regulatory and legal authority to investigate and enforce the new anti-price gouging rules would rest with “the FTC and state attorneys general.” Harris-Walz campaign press release, [8/16/24 via Popular Information]

- Axios: Price controls are “just not how anti-price gouging policies work in the U.S.” Axios markets correspondent Emily Peck wrote that “critics are conflating the idea with Soviet-style price controls, and calling the plan ‘Kamunism.’” She explained that there’s been “wild speculation about what the plan could mean, including opinion pieces expressing fears that retailers won't be able to, say, set the price of a gallon of milk, and that it would lead to widespread shortages, black markets and hoarding,” but that “that's just not how anti-price gouging policies work in the U.S.,” pointing to a federal draft bill that “largely mirrors state laws” but is limited to larger companies “with at least $100 million in revenue.” Axios, [8/20/24]

- Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman: “Kind of amazing how much of the commentariat went into a tizzy over Harris calling for price controls, when she did no such thing.” Twitter/X, [8/18/24]

- Economic writer Matthew Yglesias: “After all the tweets, I'm pretty sure Harris did not in fact propose price controls on groceries — just kind of vaguely said that antitrust enforcement is good (it is good).” Twitter/X, [8/16/24]

## Right-wing media falsely mischaracterized Harris’ proposal as setting price controls

- Multiple Fox News headlines claimed Harris’ proposal was a “price control” plan. An August 16 Fox News article critical of Harris was headlined “Dave Ramsey explains why Kamala Harris' price control plan will not curb inflation: ‘It's not sustainable.’” Several Fox headlines on August 17 labeled Harris’ plan as a “price control plan” or “price control proposal,” and another parroted Donald Trump’s accusation that Harris was pursuing “Soviet style” policies. Fox News, [8/16/24, 8/17/24, 8/17/24, 8/17/24]

- National Review: “Kamala Harris’s Price-Control Plan Is an Attempt to Rewrite History.” National Review Senior Editor Charles C.W. Cooke quoted from a New York Times article describing earlier Biden administration efforts “to target corporate consolidation and price gouging, including attempts to stoke more competition in the meat industry and the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit this year that seeks to block the merger of two large grocery retailers, Kroger and Albertsons.” None of that constitutes a “price-control plan.” National Review, [8/15/24]

- Washington Examiner: “Kamala Harris’s inflation ‘solution’: Nixon’s price controls and Trump’s tax policy.” Washington Examiner commentary writer Tiana Lowe Doescher claimed that Harris is “taking the tried and failed doctrine of price controls” from former President Richard Nixon. Washington Examiner, [8/16/24]

- Washington Free Beacon: “Kamala Harris Finally Has an Economic Plan: Price Controls on Food.” The Free Beacon referred to the plan as a “price control scheme.” Washington Free Beacon, [8/15/24]

- Fox host Dana Perino cited The Washington Post’s editorial board referring to Harris’ plan as a “gimmick” and called her plan “price controls.” The Post editorial likened Harris’ plan to “President Richard M. Nixon’s failed price controls from the 1970s.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [8/19/24; The Washington Post, 8/16/24]

* ## An FTC investigation revealed price gouging by major supermarket chains, and there have been many cases of price fixing in the food industry

- In March, the FTC released a report on grocery supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, which found that some supermarket corporations “seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today.” FTC chair Lina Khan said, “The FTC’s report examining U.S. grocery supply chains finds that dominant firms used this moment to come out ahead at the expense of their competitors and the communities they serve.” Federal Trade Commission, [3/21/24, 3/21/24]

- The Washington Post stated in early February that “the White House Council of Economic Advisers also found in a new report that grocery store profit margins remain higher than their pre-pandemic levels.” The Washington Post, [2/2/24]

- Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: Consolidation in the food industry allows major corporations “to coordinate prices instead of compete on the basis of lower prices.” Reich explained: “Food prices remain high because there’s little to no competition across the entire food supply chain. This has allowed big corporations to engage in a price gouging free-for-all.” Robert Reich, [8/13/24]

- Reuters: Meat-packing company JBS “agreed to pay $25 million to commercial beef purchasers that accused the meat-packing company of conspiring with industry rivals to restrict market supply in order to keep prices artificially high.” Reuters, [4/17/23]

- Large pork corporations have paid multiple settlements totaling nearly $200 million for price-fixing schemes in recent years. Meat + Poultry magazine reported in July that “in the last few years, JBS USA and Smithfield Foods, other large pork processing companies in the United States, have reached settlements on other direct-purchaser pork pricing cases. In 2022, JBS USA reached a $20 million settlement, and Smithfield reached an $83 million settlement. The next year, Smithfield agreed to a $75 million settlement.” The Minnesota Star Tribune reported in April that “Hormel Foods will pay more than $11 million to settle class-action lawsuits alleging the company worked with other pork producers to illegally fix prices and overcharge customers.” Meat + Poultry, [7/9/24; The Minnesota Star Tribune, 4/11/24]

- Reuters: Chicken suppliers have paid out at least $284 million in multiple price-fixing lawsuits. Reuters reported that “consumers, direct purchasers of chicken and commercial plaintiffs such as restaurants and grocery stores in the coordinated cases accused” large chicken suppliers “of conspiring for years to keep prices artificially high by curbing production and sharing nonpublic data about supply and demand.” Reuters reported that “among some of the food distributors’ earlier settlements, Tyson agreed in 2021 to pay $80 million to the direct purchaser plaintiffs. Pilgrim’s Pride that year settled for $75 million. In 2023, Koch resolved claims against it for $47.5 million, and House of Raeford Farms paid $27.5 million.” Reuters, [3/1/24]

- Tuna company StarKist settled a canned tuna price fixing lawsuit in June. StarKist previously pleaded guilty to “charges of colluding to fix the price of canned tuna from late 2011 to late 2013.” Just Food, [6/27/24]

- A federal jury ordered egg producers to pay over $17 million in an antitrust case over price fixing dating back to the 2000s. The Associated Press reported that “the jury found that the egg suppliers exported eggs abroad to reduce the overall supply in the domestic market, as well as limited the number of chickens through means including cage space, early slaughter and flock reduction” to artificially raise the price of eggs. The Associated Press, [12/1/23]

## Fox denied that price gouging even exists in the food industry

- Fox business host Larry Kudlow claimed there is no evidence that corporations, especially food companies, engage in price gouging. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow criticized Harris’ then-upcoming speech, accusing her of “basically going to bash businesses” and claiming “there is no evidence of corporate price gouging.” Kudlow added: “The rate of return, the margins are very modest across the board. In fact, food price margins from grocery stores and food companies actually declined in July, and I don't know what they did in June. But that’s an old charge. It’s just what people on the left always blame, business.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [8/14/24]

- Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said: “Their profit margin is so low. … Supermarkets are having trouble making ends meet. So they’re not the problem.” Kilmeade also defended these corporations, arguing that, “if Kamala Harris is going to run on, ‘I prosecuted corporations for price gouging,’” Republicans should defend corporations. Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/14/24]

- Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz: “By the way, if you are in the grocery business, that is one of the tightest margin businesses that there is. Don't think that those are the people causing the problem.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [8/15/24]

- Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “When she says my solution is to go after the price gougers — you’re going to go after grocery stores? Their margins are so low, they’re not making a lot of money.” Guest co-host Will Cain added: “The average margin for a business in America is 8.5%. That’s how much profit they’re making. The grocery business is making 1.2%.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/16/24]

## Most states have some kind of law banning price gouging, and Republicans have taken legal action against price gouging

- The National Conference of State Legislatures has documented that “Thirty-seven states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia have statutes or regulations that defining price gouging during a time of disaster or emergency.” The NCSL’s explanation continued: “In most states, price gouging is set as a violation of unfair or deceptive trade practices law. Most of these laws provide for civil penalties, as enforced by the state attorney general, while some state laws also enforce criminal penalties for price gouging violations.” National Conference of State Legislatures, [3/10/22]

- Former President Donald Trump used executive authority to ban price gouging of medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Reuters reported: “President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to prevent hoarding and price gouging of crucial medical supplies needed to fight the deadly coronavirus, while Attorney General William Barr announced that the Justice Department has already launched hoarding investigations to carry out the order.” Reuters, [3/24/20]

- GOP-led states, including Texas and Florida, have sued corporations for price gouging in recent years, showing that such actions are common. Opposition researcher Tyson Brody made several posts on X (formerly Twitter) showing press releases from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announcing price gouging lawsuits, including against a food company. He also posted a news headline about Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody warning against price gouging during the recent hurricane season. Twitter/X, [8/16/24, 8/16/24, 8/16/24, 8/16/24]

- Multiple GOP senators asked the Justice Department “to investigate continued allegations of (“meat packer”) price fixing within the cattle market” in 2020. In their letter, Sens. Michael Rounds (R-SD), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-MT), and John Hoeven (R-ND) cited the fact that “the four largest meat packing companies control approximately 80 percent of the beef processing in the United States,” and asked, “Does this concentration of market power amongst the four large packers create an unfair oligopoly in contradiction with U.S. Antitrust law?” The senators also cited a 20% price increase for “processed boxed beef” to show their concern. United States Senate, [3/19/20]

## Right-wing media called Harris’ plan “communism” and other such nonsense

- Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz: “Her first new policy to implement is what the communists would do, what socialists would do.”Chaffetz continued: “And that is the government’s going to come in and solve this. The government is going to dictate what prices are going to be. Is there anything more scary to the entrepreneurs in the business community than the government controlling your prices? Her solution for inflation and fixing the economy is for the government to take over? I don't think this is going to fly. I don't think it's going to come over very well. It’s never worked. That's not who we are as a country.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [8/15/24]

- Fox contributor Sean Duffy: This is a “set of commie policies. … They want to go old school socialism, fix prices.” Fox Business anchor Dagen McDowell said, “You will have bare shelves, so ‘Make America the Soviet Union’ should be the slogan there.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [8/15/24]

{ Fox guest Kevin O’Leary: “It's been tried before in countries like the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba. Doesn't work. So obviously that's not going to happen.” Fox News, *The Story*, [8/15/24]}:

- Fox host Sean Hannity: “The best Kamala could come up with is, what? Marxism, socialism, statism — I don't know, basically communism.” Hannity also compared Harris’ plan to the Soviet Union. Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/15/24]

- Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy: “The plan apparently involves a Soviet-style price control to stop inflation. … Socialism is never the answer.” She added: “This is always the plan of every tin-pot communist dictator. After they destroy the economy, the next step is always price control.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [8/15/24]

- Fox host Laura Ingraham portrayed Harris as “Comrade Kamala” during a monologue bashing her policy proposal. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [8/16/24]

- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk: “Communism is not coming to America. It’s already here.” Twitter/X, [8/15/24]

* Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones: “This has always been the plan. You will eat the bugs! Kamala Harris’ Proposed Price Controls May Lead to ‘Communism, Mass Starvation, End of America.’” Twitter/X, [8/18/24]

- A Fox report cited Washington Post opinion columnist Catherine Rampell, who falsely claimed that Harris proposed price controls that make her appear “communist.” Rampell’s column is titled, “When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls.” Fox News, *Your World with Neil Cavuto*, [8/16/24; The Washington Post, 8/15/24]

### Fox goes to bat for supermarket price gouging as VP Harris prepares to call out corporate greed

08/15/24 11:20 AM EDT

### Conservative media defend Trump’s corporate tax cuts and make false claims about Kamala Harris’ proposed 28% rate

08/20/24 4:33 PM EDT

### Economists blame the Fed for jobs report missing expectations. Trump sycophants instead blamed Kamala Harris.

08/02/24

===

an 621

The European Union is shaking up the financial world by excluding a group of large banks from participating in the marketing of bonds being floated to help in the economic recovery of member states.

According to reports in various business publications, the 10 banks are being singled out because of their involvement in cases in which they were accused of manipulating bond and currency markets. In other words, they are being punished for misconduct.

These moves may not have a major bottom-line impact on the banks—which include U.S. giants JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. But the EU is sending an important message about corporate wrongdoing.

Large companies have come to assume they can essentially buy their way out of legal jeopardy by paying fines and settlements that have grown larger but arein still far from seriously punitive. As Violation Tracker documents, the big banks are Exhibit A for this phenomenon.

The database shows that the financial sector overall has paid more than $300 billion in U.S. penalties in the past two decades, far and away more than any other part of the economy.

Bank of America is at the top of the list of penalty payers, with $82 billion; JPMorgan, second with $35 billion;Citigroup, fourth with $25 billion.

Deutsche Bank on the List

Non-U.S. banks being singled out by the EU have also accumulated substantial U.S. penalties, apart from what they have paid elsewhere. For example, Deutsche Bank paid $18 billion and NatWest (formerly the Royal Bank of Scotland) $13 billion.

The EU's move is focused on a particular set of scandals in which these banks were alleged to have colluded to rig markets.

Among these are cases involving the manipulation of currency markets. In 2015, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland each paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to resolve criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Unlike many other situations in which large corporations are offered deferred prosecution or non-prosecution agreements, the banks in this case had to plead guilty to the felony charges.

Yet there was little in the way of consequences beyond the penalty payments. The banks were put on probation, on the assumption this would cause them to cease their bad behavior. Yet all the banks continued to rack up regulatory violations in subsequent years.

€86 Million Hit

Reuters estimates that the blacklisted banks will lose out on about 86 million euros in syndication fees. This is a lot less than what the banks have paid in penalties. Yet, if banks begin to see that misconduct will cause them to be excluded from business opportunities, that may be more of an inducement to avoid corrupt behavior.

The dilemma for policymakers is that misconduct is so widespread in the financial sector that it is difficult to find service providers with clean hands. While excluding the 10 banks, the EU turned to a group of others to handle the debt issue. Those included the likes of HSBC and BNP Paribas, which have their own substantial corporate rap sheets. Perhaps a larger blacklist is needed.

This article is from Dirt Diggers Digest.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Overcharging Healthcare Programs

The company with the largest penalty total is pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which received a $13 million contract from the Department of Health and Human Services and whose separate COVID-19 vaccine effort is being touted by the Trump Administration. Over the past decade, Pfizer has been penalized in 15 contracting cases, paying out a total of $987 million, most of it stemming from a 2016 lawsuit in which its subsidiary Wyeth had been accused of overcharging federal healthcare programs by misrepresenting its financial relationships with hospitals.

Drug wholesaler McKesson, which has been awarded contracts worth a total of $9 million, has paid penalties of $453 million to resolve allegations such as reporting inflated pricing information for a large number of products, causing Medicaid to overpay for those drugs.

Dispensing Unneeded Insulin Pens

The Walgreens pharmacy chain, which received a $72 million contract for COVID-19 testing services, has paid $367 million in contracting penalties, three-quarters of which stemmed from a 2019 case in which the company had been accused of billing federal healthcare programs for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it knowingly dispensed to beneficiaries who did not need them and that it overcharged Medicaid by failing to disclose lower drug prices it offered the public through a discount program.

Smaller but still significant penalties have been paid by the companies receiving the largest COVID-19-related awards. The Dutch company Philips, recipient of $646 million in ventilator contracts, paid a penalty of $34 million through a subsidiary for giving illegal kickbacksto suppliers that purchased sleep apnea masks that were sold to Medicare beneficiaries. AstraZeneca, the recipient of $436 million in contracts, has paid $170 million in penalties for False Claims Act and related violations.

Business as Usual

The discovery that many COVID-19 federal contractors have a history of misconduct in their government business is consistent with the recent finding by Good Jobs First that thousands of companies receiving CARES Act grants and loans have similar track records, including more than 200 healthcare providers that have paid $5 billion in False Claims Act penalties over the past decade.

Some of those aid recipients are also COVID-19 contract recipients. Large companies such as Walgreens, Quest Diagnostics and Becton Dickinson are receiving money from the federal government through multiple channels despite having paid penalties in the past for contracting abuses.

The awarding of federal contracts to corporations with a history of misconduct dates back long before the pandemic or this administration, but maybe now is the time to begin doing something about this wrong-headed practice.

indirect press suppress:

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/the-social-media-giant-pays-a-tiny-legal-fine-for-falsifying-video-data-that-news-media-relied-on-to-strategize/

error in metrics?

...

“The average viewership metrics were not inflated by only 60%-80%; they were inflated by some 150 to 900%,” an amended complaint stated.

The result of this “error,” willful or not, was that dozens of news sites shifted their editorial strategies to encompass more video content, particularly on Facebook. Often, this came at the detriment of print journalism, both in editors and writers. “We don’t really know how much damage was done ultimately to the industry — we can sort of see it in terms of the number of lay-offs and things like that — but it’s clearly by any stretch of the imagination it’s clearly a drop-in-the-bucket, it’s pocket change, to an outfit like Facebook,” John Stanton, co-founder of the Save Journalism Project, told Salon in an interview. Stanton, a former BuzzFeed journalist, was laid off around the time that Facebook’s ad metrics fraud was in effect.

Facebook has continued to argue that the contrived metrics were an innocent mistake.

...

https://www.ecowatch.com/methane-leak-lawsuit-california-2594248435.html

major California utility has agreed to pay nearly $120 million in a civil settlement over a huge methane leak that forced thousands to flee their homes in 2015.

The settlement between Southern California Gas Co. and the city of Los Angeles will pay for emissions mitigation, a long-term health study, and increased safety measures from the 2015 leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field, the largest single release of methane in U.S. history.

More than 100,000 metric tons of methane were released into the air over a nearly four-month period during the disaster, prompting complaints of headaches, nosebleeds and nausea from residents in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch near the storage facility.

As reported by the Sacramento Bee:

Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the tentative deal, which will be open to public comment and requires court approval, addressed violations of health and safety codes, the illegal discharge of air contaminants and failure to report the release of hazardous materials.

"There is no excuse for what happened," Becerra said in a statement. "For over four months, this leak exposed our communities to natural gas emissions that resulted in adverse health impacts and disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of Californians."

...

Trump administration announced Thursday that it had picked a former official at for-profit DeVry University to head an Education Department unit that polices colleges for student aid fraud.

Last year, DeVry paid $100 million to settle federal claims it misled students.

Julian Schmoke Jr., who was an associate dean at DeVry from 2008 to 2012, will lead federal student aid enforcement activities, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said.

can be leverage, eg riverkeeper and

https://www.alternet.org/environment/billions-vw-settlement-boost-push-clean-vehicles

South Carolina wants to replace aging school buses. Colorado plans to electrify Denver’s bus system. And Washington wants electric ferryboats for Puget Sound.

As part of a 2016 federal court settlement after Volkswagen admitted programming its diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, the automaker agreed to pay $2.8 billion to states to be used to reduce diesel pollution. And with money arriving as early as June, states are already deciding how to spend their share of the funds.

The infusion of money comes at a time when states are struggling to meet air quality standards and believe they won’t be able to do it without widespread adoption of low- and no-emission vehicles, from the Nissan Leaf in someone’s driveway to propane-fueled city buses and electric freight locomotives in public and corporate fleets. The VW funds — ranging from $8 million to $423 million per state, depending on the number of diesel VWs sold — could jump-start a viable market for alternate-fuel and electric vehicles, clean energy experts and state officials say.

“The hidden value of the VW settlement is creating an interest and appetite [among] agencies that might not otherwise have been participating in clean-vehicle technologies,” said Dan Welch of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy.

Under the settlement, negotiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board, states can spend the VW money on grants to both public agencies and private businesses. Each state has named a lead agency — whether environmental, energy or transportation — to oversee the projects, and 11 states (Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont and Washington) have already released draft plans outlining their proposed grants to replace engines that spew nitrogen oxide, or NOx.

States can spend as much as 15 percent of their payout to subsidize construction of public charging stations for electric cars. Most states are likely to spend the full amount, said Nick Nigro of Atlas Public Policy, a transportation electrification consulting firm: 17 states have already said they will do so. (Under a separate part of its court settlement, Volkswagen is spending $2 billion to build electric car charging stations and $10 billion to buy back diesel cars from consumers.)

Dirty Buses

Clean-energy advocates say public transit and school buses are likely targets for state programs for diesel replacement. Parents like the idea of getting rid of diesel fumes at the school bus stop. And the VW funds are arriving at a time when transit systems around the country are increasingly trying out electric and hybrid buses....

nomi prins 12/17 AN

https://www.alternet.org/economy/next-financial-crisis-will-be-worse-last-one

...On the flip side of that euphoria however, is the fact that the median wage rose just 2.4 percent and has remained effectively stagnant relative to inflation. And although the unemployment rate fell to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent, its lowest level in nearly four decades—particularly difficult for new entrants to the workforce, such as students graduating under a $1.3 trillion pile of unrepayable or very challenging student loan debt. (Not to worry though: Goldman Sachs is on that, promoting a way to profit from this debt by stuffing it into other assets and selling those off to investors, a la shades of the subprime mortgage crisis.)

Those of us living in the actual world without billionaire family pedigrees possess a healthy dose of skepticism over the “Make America Great Again” sect that believes Trump has transformed America “hugely,” for record-setting markets don’t imply economic stability, nor do 40 percent corporate tax cuts translate into 40 percent wage growth. We can march forward into 2018 carrying that knowledge with us.

But first, a recap. For the U.S. financial system, 2017 was marked by five main themes: The GOP’s “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” Corporate Tax Reduction Plan; Big Banks Still Bad; The Fed’s Minor Policy Shift; Debt; and Deregulators Appointed to Positions of Regulatory Authority.

Banks Are Still Big and Bad

The Big Six banks have paid billions of dollars in settlements for a variety of frauds committed before and since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, but that didn’t keep them from tallying up new fines in 2017. The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, agreed to pay $53 million in fines for scamming African-American and Latino mortgage borrowers with disproportionately higher rates than for white borrowers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Citigroup $28.8 million for not disclosing foreclosure-avoiding actions. Bank of America got fined $45 million for its foul treatment of a California couple trying to save their home.

But the Big Six bank that received the most attention in 2017, as it did in 2016, was Wells Fargo. The number of people affected by its fake-account creation scandal grew from 2 million reported in 2016 to about 3.5 million. That increase resulted in Wells Fargo expanding its associated class-action settlement to $142 million.

Wells Fargo was mired in smaller scandals, too. For instance, it charged 800,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need, raised mortgage rates for certain customers without properly disclosing it was going to, and made a bunch of unauthorized adjustments to people’s mortgages.

No Glass-Steagall Reinstatement, More Deregulation

The idea of reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 featured in both the Democratic and the Republican National Committees’ platforms during the campaign season. But Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, made it clear multiple times there would be no such push from the administration, arguing against doing so before senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

To emphasize his disdain for regulation and oversight, Mnuchin also pushed the Financial Stability Oversight Council, over which he presides, to vote 6 to 3 to rescind American International Group’s designation as posing a potential threat to the U.S. financial system. Thus, AIG will no longer be paying penance for its role at the epicenter of the last financial crisis by filing regular risk reports anymore. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen also supported the move.

...

== http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/14/463107541/goldman-sachs-will-pay-5-billion-to-settle-financial-crisis-claims

Goldman Sachs will pay about $5 billion to resolve state and federal investigations into its handling of mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, the bank said today.

The agreement will settle "actual and potential civil claims" by the U.S. Justice Department and the attorneys general of New York and Illinois, as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Seattle and the National Credit Union Administration, the firm said in a press release issued after the close of trading Thursday.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle to resolve these matters," said Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman's chairman and chief executive officer.

The firm said it will pay a civil monetary penalty of $2.385 billion, a cash payment of $875 million and $1.8 billion in consumer relief:

...

Regulators have already won large multibillion-dollar settlements from several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.

Exxon Wants $1 Million Fine for 2011 Yellowstone Oil Spill Reduced Again

More than three and a half years after an ExxonMobil pipeline spilled 63,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River, the world's second-most-valuable company is still fighting regulators over being assessed a $1 million fine.

Massey Energy to Pay Largest Civil Penalty Ever for Water Permit Violations

Release Date: 01/17/2008

Contact Information: Contact: Roxanne Smith, 202-564-4355 / smith.roxanne@epa.gov

(Washington, D.C. – Jan. 17, 2008) Massey Energy Company Inc. has agreed to pay a $20 million civil penalty in a corporate-wide settlement to resolve Clean Water Act violations at coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced. This is the largest civil penalty in EPA’s history levied against a company for wastewater discharge permit violations.

"This is a landmark settlement for the environment, and raises the bar for the mining industry," said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "Today's action reiterates the message that EPA will enforce environmental laws."

“The measures required by this settlement represent a significant step forward in the way that mining facilities currently address Clean Water Act compliance,” said Ronald J. Tenpas, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division. “This settlement will greatly benefit citizens in West Virginia and Kentucky and improve many of our nation’s waters for years to come.”

As part of the settlement, Massey, the fourth largest coal company in the United States, has agreed to take measures at all of its facilities that will prevent an estimated 380 million pounds of sediment and other pollutants from entering the nation’s waters each year. These compliance measures are unprecedented in the coal mining industry.

In a complaint filed on May 10, 2007, the government alleged that Massey violated its Clean Water Act permits more than 4,500 times between January 2000 and December 2006. The complaint alleged that Massey discharged excess amounts of metals, sediment, and acid mine drainage into hundreds of rivers and streams in West Virginia and Kentucky. Many of the pollutants were discharged in amounts 40 percent or more than allowed. Some pollutants were discharged at levels more than 10 times over the permit limits.

The complaint also alleged that Massey spilled large amounts of slurry, which is waste containing metals and sediment, into local waterways numerous times. Sediment can clog streams and harm fish habitats. The spills occurred as a result of failures in the processing, storage, and transportation of coal slurry.

In addition to the penalty, Massey will invest approximately $10 million to develop and implement a set of procedures to prevent future violations. Massey will implement an innovative electronic tracking system that allows the company to quickly address compliance problems and correct any violations of permit limits. This measure fits within a comprehensive environmental compliance program that Massey has agreed to implement, which includes in-depth internal and third-party audits, employee training, and a plan to prevent future slurry spills.

Massey will also set aside 200 acres of riverfront land in West Virginia for conservation purposes and protection from future mining. The company is also required to perform 20 projects downstream from mining operations.

Massey, the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, owns and operates approximately 33 underground mines and approximately 11 surface mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, with corporate headquarters in Richmond, Va. Massey controls 2.3 billion tons, or approximately one-third, of the coal reserves in Central Appalachia.

The company holds hundreds of state-issued wastewater discharge permits. The permits allow the company to discharge certain pollutants in limited amounts to rivers, streams, and other water bodies. Some pollutants must be treated with chemicals prior to discharge, while others must go through a settling process. Massey is required to monitor discharges regularly and report results to the state agency. Permits are issued for a five-year term.

The consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

More information on the Massey settlement:http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/cwa/massey.html

More information on Clean Water Act Enforcement: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/cwa/index.html

Help EPA protect our nation's land, air and water by reporting violations: http://www.epa.gov/tips

aep ohio http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21198255/#.Un6V6fnks0w

massey upper big branch

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21198255/#.Un6V6fnks0w

Records Show Upper Big Branch Mine Amassed Scores of Safety Citations, Thousands in Fines

Massey Energy CEO Releases Statement Saying Safety is 'Top Priority'

By MATTHEW MOSK and ASA ESLOCKER

Apr. 6, 2010 —

The West Virginia coal mine where an explosion killed 25 workers and left another four unaccounted for in the worst mining disaster since 1984 had amassed scores of citations from mining safety officials, including 57 infractions just last month for violations that included repeatedly failing to develop and follow a ventilation plan.

The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch mine, operated by the Performance Coal Company. They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them. Performance is a subsidiary of Massey Energy. Another Massey subsidiary agreed to pay $4.2 million in criminal and civil fines last year and admitted to willfully violating mandatory safety standards that led to the deaths of two miners. The fine was the largest penalty in the history of the coal industry.

The nation's sixth biggest mining company by production, Massey Energy took in $24 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company paid what was then the largest financial settlement in the history of the coal industry for the 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, also in West Virginia. The fire trapped 12 miners. Two suffocated as they looked for a way to escape. Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports.

The two widows of the miners killed in Aracoma were unsatisfied by the plea agreement, telling the judge they believed the company cared more about profits then safety. After the deal, the Massey subsidiary pledged a renewed focus on safety after the fines were levied.

But Bruce Stanley, the attorney who tried the Aracoma Mine accident case, had doubts. He told ABC News Monday there are a lot of similarities between the Aracoma mine and the one involved in this week's tragedy, and he has concerns about Massey's checkered track record on safety issues. Data kept by the Mine Safety and Health Administration show the Upper Big Branch mine has suffered three worker fatalities in last 12 years.

"One can only hope that the level of criminal neglect evident at the Aracoma accident was not repeated at the Upper Big Branch mine," Stanley said Monday night.

After the Aracoma accident, Massey Energy released a statement that said the company "is a recognized leader in safety innovation and performance and remains committed to working with federal and state agencies to fully understand the causes of the accident and to prevent a similar occurrence at Massey Energy or elsewhere in the future."

Monday night, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship released a statement saying, "Our top priority is the safety of our miners and the well-being of their families. We are working diligently on rescue efforts and continue to partner with all of the appropriate agencies."

"You're Liable to Get Shot"

The company is well known in West Virginia, in part because CEO Don Blankenship grew to become a fixture in state politics, doling out thousands of dollars to candidates he favored – most of them Republicans. In 2004, he spent millions on advertising that attacked a West Virginia state Supreme Court justice, leading to the election of challenger Brent Benjamin.

Massey had a $70 million case before the state Supreme Court and, once elected, Benjamin made the controversial decision not to recuse himself because of Blankenship's support of him and to hear arguments anyway. Another member of the court hearing the case was Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard. He later recused himself after photographs surfaced showing that he vacationed with Blankenship in the French Riviera.

When an ABC News reporter tried to interview Blankenship about the possible conflicts in the parking lot of a Massey Energy office in Belfry, Ky., Blankenship became agitated.

"If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot," Blankenship told the reporter before grabbing his camera.

Blankenship later told the Charleston Daily Mail he couldn't recall making any threats. "Quite frankly, I don't know what I said except that I know I'm never loud, vulgar or rude to strangers," he said.

The conflicts surrounding the state Supreme Court saga triggered a cascade of changes, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that called on judges to recuse themselves when major donors come before them in court, and a vote by the West Virginia legislature to adopt public financing of judicial campaigns.

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http://www.motherjones.com/files/NWF_OilSpillsExplosions_pages.pdf