Businesses very often deal with lawsuits. Be it an environmental disaster, or loss of life, companies often pay fines for the mishaps they have done. To maintain law and order, most countries levy criminal or civil fines on companies. The penalties for criminal cases vary widely from civil fines. As companies often pay billions as penalties, do you know who paid the largest criminal fine in history?
Who Paid the Largest Criminal Fine in History?
If considered globally, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has paid the highest criminal fine to date. The company has paid billions as it has failed to meet the country’s standard requirements of nuclear power safety. The lawsuits filed against the company made it pay a total of $450 billion in fines.
Who paid the largest criminal fine in history recently in U.S. pharmaceuticals? It’s Pfizer who paid $2.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties.
Who Paid the Largest Criminal Fine in History and Why?
You must be curious to know who paid the largest criminal fine in history and why? The court imposed criminal fines on TEPCO because of the Fukushima nuclear tragedy. The disaster occurred in 2011 and was the worst after the Chernobyl incident. Radiation leaks led tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.
The amount TEPCO paid to the court in criminal fines was distributed among the affected people. Alongside, the money helped clean up the land.
The company faced multiple civil lawsuits as well. It also came out that the company was not prepared for a tsunami.
If you ask who paid the highest criminal fine in history, it will be TEPCO. A Tokyo court ordered the energy giant to pay $10 million for the damages. Additionally, it paid 1 million yen to all the families within the power plant’s 30km area. Summing up all the fines TEPCO had to pay in criminal and civil fines, it is the company paying the largest fine in history ever.
The Other Companies Who Paid the Largest Criminal Fines
However, there are several other companies who paid the largest criminal fines after TEPCO.
Bank of America
In 2007, Bank of America involved itself in fueling a housing bubble that would burst to ruin the global economy. The financial crisis the USA and the world faced in 2008 made the bank pay $16.65 billion as a penalty.
Volkswagen
After TEPCO and Bank of America, it’s Volkswagen who paid the largest criminal fine in history. The automaker giant paid $14.7 billion in criminal and civil penalties. The charges against the company were that many of its cars’ software was fitted in diesel engines. The cars sold in the USA actually emitted 40 times the pollution levels that are legal. Volkswagen later had to recall the cars and refit parts for appropriate emissions. This is, to date, the largest civil settlement in the world for misconduct by an automaker.
The social media giant, with various terms and policies, had to pay $5 billion. Facebook is the company who paid the largest criminal fine in history for violating consumer privacy rules. Also, it’s one of the highest financial penalties the U.S. government has charged for a violation. The charge against the popular social media platform was the violation of a 2012 FTC order.
B.P.
B.P. was responsible for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the largest-ever marine oil spill occurring so far. It had to pay $4.5 billion for the largest industrial environmental disaster in the U.S. The spill poured into the water for four months and covered 60,000 square miles.
Your favorite search giant’s name in the list may surprise you. Indeed, Google is one of those companies who paid the largest criminal fines. It paid $4 billion to the E.U. in an antitrust case connected to its Android O.S. for smartphones. The European Commission alleged that Google took undue advantage of its dominance in Android operating systems. It accused Google of promoting its services like Google Maps and Google Search using power to cement its position further.
However, this was not the first time the company had to pay fines. In 2018, it paid $495 million as a fine for misusing its market dominance. In 20107, Google paid $2.7 billion for violation of antitrust laws.
GlaxoSmithKline
The company allegedly promoted some prescription drugs unlawfully and had to pay $3 billion regarding criminal and civil liabilities. It promoted antidepressant drugs Wellbutrin and Paxil. GlaxoSmithKline even failed to submit safety data to the FDA on the Avandia anti-diabetic drug. This is the largest settlement regarding a healthcare fraud in U.S. history.
Pfizer
Pfizer paid $2.3 billion in criminal penalties for mis-promoting medicines. The charge against the pharmaceutical company was false claims related to Bextra, a medicine that heals pain. Bextra increased heart attack risks and led to severe skin reactions. Along with paying the fines, Pfizer removed the medicine from the market.
Final words
These companies, who paid the largest criminal fine in history, had to pay billions. Apart from them, Equifax paid $700 million for a hack in 2017. British Airways had to pay $230 million due to a malfunction in their website, compromising the personal information of 500000 customers.
