National Consumer Council

2005

$4,800,000

"Operators of a Santa Ana-based debt-relief company and a complex web of affiliates have agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle charges that they scammed consumers out of $84.3 million by falsely promising to negotiate discounted payoffs to creditors... The FTC shut down the telemarketing and direct mail operation in May 2004, alleging that National Consumer Council Inc. was "masquerading as a nonprofit." Despite paying large fees, many clients wound up so much deeper in debt that they had to file for bankruptcy protection, the FTC said in a lawsuit filed in Santa Ana federal court. A court-appointed receiver has been liquidating the assets of National Consumer and its affiliates and has returned to consumers about $24 million that had been held in trust accounts for repayment of creditors. The companies would pay an additional $1 million to consumers as part of the negotiated settlement, bringing the total payments from defendants to $4.8 million... The agreed-to orders against individual defendants associated with the alleged scam were as follows, the FTC said:
Walter Haines, Paul Kardos and Walter Ledda would be required to pay $605,000, $1.86 million and $1.36 million, respectively. Each defendant also would have a suspended judgment of $84.3 million, the amount of unreturned fees their operation received from consumers. Failure to pay the judgments, or a finding that they had misrepresented their financial status, would make them liable for the entire $84.3 million.
Mary Beth Harper and Martha Levitsky would have a suspended judgment of $17.8 million — the amount their company, Financial Rescue Services Inc., one of the entities involved in the alleged debt-relief scam, collected from consumers.
Harvey Warren would have a suspended monetary judgment of $84.3 million for fees received from consumers, and would be liable for that amount if found to have misrepresented his financial condition..." (Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2005).

Newmont Mining

2006

$30,000,000

[T]o pay Indonesia $30 million in out-of-court settlement... over allegations the company dumped tons of toxic waste into a bay, sickening villagers. The deal closes a civil suit filed by the government, but has no impact on an ongoing criminal trial of the U.S. gold mining giant's top local executive, who is accused of knowingly dumping dangerous amounts of arsenic and other heavy metals into Buyat Bay on Sulawesi Island, 1,300 miles northeast of Jakarta. Newmont's local subsidiary said it would pay $30 million over 10 years to fund environmental monitoring and community development around the gold mine in exchange for the government dropping the case... The Environment Ministry... had been asking for $133.6 million in damages to compensate for the alleged pollution from arsenic-laced waste rock pumped onto the ocean floor... The criminal case against the company is being heard in Manado, the capital of north Sulawesi province. Richard Ness, the American president director of Newmont Minahasa Raya, the Denver-based company's Indonesian subsidiary, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. A verdict is expected later this year... Newmont began operations in Sulawesi in 1996, and stopped mining two years ago after extracting all the gold it could. But it continued processing ore until Aug. 31, 2004, when the mine was permanently shut. (Associated Press / News.yahoo.com, Feb 16, 2006).

Nicholas Rizzo

1993

$1,499,000

Money laundering and false statements.

Nike

2003

$1,500,000

The [Kasky] suit was originally provoked by a Nike PR campaign that discussed the labor conditions in its overseas manufacturing facilities. However, it eventually evolved into a dispute over whether the US Constitution's First Amendment protections extend to PR efforts. The settlement follows a June decision by the US Supreme Court not to rule on the speech issue. Kasky's lawyers argued among other points that the words of the company's spokespeople should be considered "commercial speech," like advertising, and are therefore not protected by free-speech rights. Nike's legal team asked the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the PR campaign enjoyed free-speech protection under the First Amendment. The high court declined to rule on the suit, allowing the case to proceed through the California trial courts. The case was born out of an attempt by Nike to defend itself against accusations that its footwear is manufactured in sweatshops in Asia. The company began a PR campaign to quash those accusations in 1998. Kasky disputed the assertions made in that campaign, and launched his suit on those grounds. The settlement sees Nike admit no liability, but agree to spend $1.5 million on workplace-related issues over the next three years above what it usually spends on such initiatives. The money will go to the Washington, DC-based Fair Labor Association, a workers' rights group. (Matthew Creamer, Nike talks to PRWeek after Kasky settlement, PR Week, Sept 12, 2003).

"Why did Marc Kasky settle his case against Nike for a $1.5 million payment to the Fair Labor Association, a group controlled by Nike and other major shoe manufacturers?... Corporations are given six of the seats on the FLA board, and the FLA charter states that all major decisions require a super-majority of the corporations on the board to be approved... The New York Times reported earlier this month that "other terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and lawyers on both sides declined to say whether Nike had paid Mr. Kasky's legal fees or made other payments."... Discovery in the Kasky case had the potential to open the Nike files to public scrutiny, to document the mistreatment of workers throughout the world, and the flow of money from Nike to public interest groups... And Kasky and his lawyers settle this potential historic case for a $1.5 million donation to a group controlled by the shoe and apparel industry. And now they won't talk about it." (Nike Gets a Pass, by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation, Sept 22, 2003).

Nippon Gohsei

199?

$21,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Nortel Networks

2006

$2,470,000,000

Telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. said Wednesday it has reached a tentative agreement to pay $2.47 billion in cash and stock to settle two shareholder class-action lawsuits over the company's accounting scandal.
Nortel, which has been working to recover from the scandal that forced it to restate previous financial results and terminate several senior executives, said it wants avoid being tied up in prolonged litigation. Shareholders filed numerous lawsuits against Nortel for allegedly violating U.S. and Canadian securities laws after it issued revised financial expectations for the 2001 fiscal year.
Under the proposed settlement, Nortel said it would pay $575 million in cash, issue 628.7 million shares, or 14.5 percent of its current equity, and contribute half of any funds it recovers from suits against former senior officers whom the company fired in April 2004. (AP/Mercury News, Feb 8, 2006).

Northern Brands International

199?

$5,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Northern Trust Bank

2005

$21,000,000

Northern Trust Bank of California has agreed to pay $21 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it charged excessive management fees to 1,300 individuals, charities and others with trust accounts... The amount of alleged overcharges varied, but trust beneficiaries are expected to receive settlements averaging about $12,300 each... At least two other big banks have faced similar allegations since the early 1990s. Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $111 million and Wells Fargo & Co. $35 million to settle lawsuits over trustee charges; neither admitted wrongdoing..." (Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2005).

Northrup

1976

$2,300,000

US Defense Contract Audit Agency civil and/or criminal action relating to illegal corporate domestic money-in-politics activity. http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/cgi-win/x_vce.exe

Northrop

199?

$17,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

NRG Energy

2004

$1,500,000

see DYNEGY entry

Occidental Petroleum

1976

$1,000,000

Corpoatee board decision to have Occidental Petroleum Company pay Armand Hammer legal fees civil and/or criminal actions relating to illegal corporate domestic money-in-politics activity. http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/cgi-win/x_vce.exe

Odwalla Inc.

199?

$1,500,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Ogilvy & Mather

subsidiary of WPP Group

2002

$1,800,000

To settle civil accusations of making false claims for work for the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1999 and 2000. (New York Times, July 17, 2005).

Ortho Pharmaceutical

199?

$5,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

PayPal (eBay)

2003

$10,000,000

"PayPal to pay $10 million to settle online gambling charge. Online payment service PayPal Inc. and its parent, eBay Inc., have agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle allegations they aided illegal offshore and online gambling. According to the settlement, PayPal between mid-2000 and November 2002 transmitted money in violation of federal and state online gambling laws. As part of the settlement, PayPal must maintain a corporate compliance program for at least two years. The settlement ends the government's case against PayPal and e-Bay, but doesn't limit investigation of companies or individuals outside PayPal and eBay who were involved. ``Offshore sportsbooks and on-line casino gambling operations which do business in the United States generally do so in violation of federal criminal laws,'' said U.S. Attorney Raymond Gruender. ``Therefore, we will continue to investigate and pursue such activity.'' Gruender commended the ``cooperative, conciliatory approach of PayPal and eBay'' in resolving the matter and their continued assistance to related investigations. Online gambling accounted for about 8 percent, or $117 million, of the $1.46 billion processed through PayPal during the first three months of 2002. PayPal stopped accepting payments for gambling services when it was acquired by eBay later the same year." (Dow Jones/AP, July 25, 2003).

SIG Specialists

and

Performance Specialist Group

2004

$5,200,000

"Two New York Stock Exchange floor-trading firms have agreed to pay a total of $5.2 million to settle charges they engaged in improper trading to make profits at customers' expense, securities regulators said on Monday. The settlements stem from a broader investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the NYSE into improper floor-trading practices from 1999 to 2003. SIG Specialists Inc. (SSI) and Performance Specialist Group LLC agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. They join five firms that agreed to pay $241.8 million to settle similar allegations in late March, the SEC and the NYSE said in a joint statement. The SEC and NYSE said in a joint statement the two firms generated illegal profits by executing orders for their own accounts ahead of public customer orders. SIG and Performance Specialist are among the NYSE's seven active specialist firms, which buy and sell certain stocks to dampen volatility and add liquidity. "Through this conduct, the firms improperly profited from trading opportunities; disadvantaged customer orders, which either received inferior prices or went unexecuted altogether and breached their duty to serve as agents to public customer orders," the joint statement said. In certain cases of misconduct, the firms would buy shares on its own account from a public seller and then turn around and sell the same shares on its own account to a public buyer, thus creating a spread for itself, a practice known as "interpositioning," the statement said. In other cases, the firms benefited from executing their own trades first, leaving public trades to lower prices, or leaving processable limit orders entirely unexecuted, the SEC and NYSE said. As part of the settlement, SIG Specialists and Performance Specialist will pay a total of $1.7 million in civil penalties and $3.5 million in the disgorgement of illegal profits, according to the statement.... On March 30, five firms settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. The firms were Bear Wagner Specialists LLC; Fleet Specialist Inc; LaBranche & Co. LLC; Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Specialists LLC and Van der Moolen Specialists USA LLC.

Pfizer

199?

$20,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Pfizer

(Warner-Lambert division)

2004

$430,000,000

"Pfizer Inc., the world's largest pharmaceutical firm, agreed yesterday to pay more than $430 million to settle criminal and civil charges that one of its divisions fraudulently marketed a popular drug, Neurontin, for unapproved uses. The company pleaded guilty to charges that its Warner-Lambert division engaged in a widespread, coordinated effort -- offering kickbacks, one-sided education classes and free trips to the Olympics and to Florida -- to encourage doctors to prescribe Neurontin for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. First approved by the FDA in 1993, Neurontin became a major drug, with $2.2 billion of sales in the United States last year; worldwide sales were $2.7 billion, about 6 percent of Pfizer's total revenue of $45.2 billion. Law enforcement officials said yesterday a month's prescription costs about $200 and that about 90 percent of the prescriptions are for unapproved uses. The FDA has approved Neurontin only to treat epilepsy and shingles, but Warner-Lambert promoted it to treat a variety of psychiatric ailments (including bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder), back pain, migraines and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), the Justice Department said yesterday... The Pfizer statement said the underlying allegations in the case originated in 1996, before it acquired Warner-Lambert in 2002 and "the allegations and conduct pertain solely to Warner-Lambert practices."... Pfizer agreed to pay a criminal fine of $240 million and $190 million in civil fines to be divided among the states and federal government. It is the second-largest criminal fine ever imposed in a health care fraud prosecution. The largest, $290 million, was assessed in 2001, on TAP Pharmaceuticals, a venture of Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., which was charged with using kickbacks, travel and free goods and services to illegally market its prostate cancer drug, Lupron. In the Neurontin case, law enforcement officials said, Warner-Lambert promoted the drug even when scientific studies showed it wasn't effective and made false or misleading statements regarding its efficacy and FDA approval. The company also paid doctors to allow sales representatives to accompany them while they saw patients, with the salesmen offering advice that was "biased toward the use of Neurontin," the Justice Department said. Warner-Lambert also paid doctors to attend "consultants' meetings" that included expensive dinners, tickets to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and one-sided presentations about using Neurontin for uses other than those approved by the FDA. The company also used "medical liaisons" who represented themselves -- "often falsely," the Justice Department said -- as scientific experts to promote Neurontin's unauthorized use. It was through one such liaison, David Franklin, that Warner-Lambert's activities first became known. Under the settlement, he will receive more than $24 million under the law that permits whistle-blowers to share the proceeds in successful lawsuits against corporate wrongdoing. Also under the settlement, a $28 million fund will be set up for the states to sponsor a program to provide doctors and consumers with fair and balanced information about drugs..." (Fraud Sold Drug, Pfizer Admits, By Caroline E. Mayer, Washington Post, May 14, 2004; Page E01).

Pharmaceutica Quimica
Bayer
Abbott Laboratories
Johnson & Johnson
Menarini Diagnosticos

2005

16 million Euros total

"Portugal's antitrust regulator said it had fined five major US and European drug companies a total of 16 mln eur for working together to artificially fix prices.
The five firms -- Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson of the United States, Germany's Bayer AG, Italy's Menarini Diagnosticos and Switzerland's Pharmaceutica Quimica -- formed a cartel during 36 bidding processes to supply 22 hospitals in Portugal, it said. The goal of the companies was to 'prevent, restrict or falsify in a significant way competition by fixing prices', the competition authority said in a statement.
Abbott Laboratories was hit with the largest fine, 6.8 mln eur, for 34 infractions while Johnson & Johnson, which cooperated with antitrust regulator in its investigation, received the smallest fine, it added. The firm will have to pay 360,000 eur for 36 infractions. The antitrust regulator opened its investigation after a public hospital in Coimbra, Portugal's third-largest city, complained that the five firms had all proposed the same price for the same drug." (AFX News Limited, Oct 14, 2005).

Philip Morris

(division of Altria Group)

2004

$1,250,000,000

"The maker of Marlboro cigarettes agreed Friday to pay up to $1.25 billion to help the European Union combat smuggling and fakes, ending years of legal wrangling over an illegal trade that costs both sides hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Philip Morris International, a unit of U.S. tobacco and food giant Altria Group Inc., will make the payments — the most ever extracted from a single company by the EU — in varying amounts over 12 years in return for ending litigation on both sides... The money will go to the EU budget and the 10 countries that joined the EU’s lawsuit against the company: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The civil lawsuits filed in New York accused the company of complicity in smuggling Marlboro and other brands into the EU — where cigarettes generally are heavily taxed — by intentionally oversupplying countries with lower duties. The excess would allegedly be smuggled into EU countries and sold on the black market, depriving treasuries of tax and customs revenue. Philip Morris has steadfastly denied the charges." (Philip Morris, EU resolve smuggling charges. Tobacco firm pays up to $1.25 billion to help combat trafficking. Associated Press, July 9, 2004).

Philip Morris

(division of Altria Group)

 2004

 $2,750,000

"The federal judge overseeing the government's $280 billion racketeering case against Big Tobacco slapped Philip Morris USA with a $2.75 million fine Wednesday for losing documents relevant to the case. Judge Gladys Kessler also ordered the company, a unit of Altria, to cough up $5,000 in legal costs to Uncle Sam. In a press release, the company said the levy was for the "possible inadvertent loss of some e-mails." However, Kessler noted in her ruling that it is "astounding that employees at the highest corporate level in Philip Morris, with significant responsibilities pertaining to issues in this lawsuit, failed to follow [a previous court order], the document retention policies of their own employer, and in particular, the 'print and retain' policy ..." Moreover, she continued, "it must be noted that Philip Morris is a particularly sophisticated corporate litigant which has been involved in hundreds, and more likely thousands, of smoking-related lawsuits." Although the government asked Kessler for an "adverse inference" ruling -- essentially a finding that the document loss may been deliberate -- Kessler turned them down. The company said it is studying legal options stemming from the ruling. "(Philip Morris) believes this is a harsh penalty given the fact that the company brought this matter to the court's attention as soon as it was discovered and took immediate corrective action," company attorney William Ohlemeyer said in the release. "No one knows for sure whether any e-mails were lost as a result of this incident," he added." (Altria slapped with $2.75 million fine, By William Spain, CBS.MarketWatch.com, July 21, 2004).

Pilgrim Baxter

2004

$100,000,000

Pilgrim Baxter & Associates Ltd., a U.S. mutual fund unit of British insurer Old Mutual Plc, agreed to pay $100 million to settle regulators' claims that it allowed favored investors to trade fund shares at the expense of other clients (Bloomberg, June 21, 2004).
"In a settlement with the SEC and the New York Attorney General's Office, Pilgrim Baxter & Associates, a unit of London-based Old Mutual, agreed to pay $50 million in fines and $40 million in disgorgement in an administrative proceeding related to frequent trading in PBHG funds. In a separate settlement with the New York AG, Pilgrim Baxter agreed to reduce management fees by at least $10 million per year over the next five years. A district court suit against Gary Pilgrim and Harold Baxter, the ousted co-founders of the money management firm, is still pending. Pilgrim Baxter, the firm, neither admitted nor denied the findings but did consent to censure and a cease-and-desist order." (Forbes Wall Street Fine Tracker).

Pimco

2004

$50,000,000

Three companies have agreed to pay $50 million to settle charges they defrauded investors in Pimco Funds by not disclosing an improper trading arrangement. In return, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to drop a lawsuit it filed in May against the companies, PA Fund Management LLC, PEA Capital LLC and PA Distributors LLC. Under the settlement, the companies did not admit or deny the SEC charges, but consented to cease-and-desist orders, censures, and to undertake compliance and mutual fund governance reforms. The settlement, consisting of a $40 million penalty and $10 million disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, is to be distributed to shareholders whose funds were affected by illegal market timing. Authorities had accused the companies of market-timing, a type of frequent "in-and-out" trading. The practice is not illegal but widely restricted by most mutual funds because it tends to skim profits from other shareholders. The SEC lawsuit in May came three months after state regulators sued. Both suits maintained that investors were cheated when the companies allowed a major client to engage in market-timing trades worth more than $4 billion. The client was Secaucus-based hedge fund operator Canary Capital Partners LLC, which agreed to a $40 million settlement last year with New York regulators over market timing and other improper trading practices in several funds..." (Pimco entities to pay $50M in settlement, Boston Globe, Sept 13, 2004).

Piper Jaffray

2004

$2,400,000

"Piper Jaffray & Co. was fined $2.4 million on Monday for improper sales of initial public offering shares to executives of companies with whom Piper Jaffray had, or was seeking, investment banking business. According to the National Association of Securities Dealers, which levied the fine, Piper Jaffray designated shares from a number of IPOs to 22 different executives of client companies or potential clients. From 1999 to 2001, each executive was given the chance to participate in at least five IPOs, and some participated as many as 20. Individual profits ranged from $9,000 to $242,000, NASD said. Piper Jaffray, in turn, made $16 million from the issuers of the IPOs. The allocations, known as "spinning" in investment circles, are a violation of NASD rules. The NASD said such allocations were routinely used as a reward for executives who drove business to Piper Jaffray, or as an incentive to do business." (AP/ABCNews.com, July 12, 2004).

Prudential Financial

2006

$600,000,000

"Prudential Financial, the big insurance and financial services company, agreed today to pay $600 million in order to settle charges with federal and state regulators that it engaged in inappropriate mutual fund trading.
The payment is the second largest levied against a financial institution over such trading, and it marks the latest development in a three-year investigation into the improper trading of mutual funds that has ensnared some of the largest names on Wall Street and the mutual fund industry.
The settlement, which covers trades made for more than $2.5 billion from 2001 to 2003, is also the first in the market timing fund scandal in which an institution admits to criminal wrongdoing.
Such a concession by Prudential, part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, underscores the extent to which the improper trading practices had not only been widespread, but condoned by senior executives at the company’s Prudential Securities unit despite repeated complaints and warnings from the mutual fun companies.
"The deceptive trading practices at Prudential were compromising the integrity of many mutual funds," said Paul J. McNulty, the deputy attorney general. "Investors were dealt a bad hand by corporate conmen who stacked the deck against them."
As part of its settlement, Prudential has also agreed to not only cooperate in the continuing investigation but to make periodic reports about its compliance activities to the department.
The infractions occurred at Prudential Securities, then the brokerage division of Prudential. In July 2003, Prudential Financial transferred the assets in this unit to a newly formed joint venture owned by itself and Wachovia, now called Wachovia Securities.
Market timing itself, which involves rapid fire trading of mutual fund shares so as to capture price inefficiencies, is not illegal. The practice is discouraged by most leading fund companies, however, as it can hurt fund shareholders by adding to mutual fund costs and disrupting investment portfolios.
The complaint focuses on the activities of four brokers located in Prudential Securities’ New York City offices. According to regulators, the four men concocted an elaborate scheme to put through as many as a thousand daily transactions for their hedge fund clients by going to great lengths to disguise the origins of the trades.
The practice was so profitable for the brokers, earning $10 million for the division, that Frederick J. O’Meally, the team leader who received close to half of that amount, was the top-producing broker at Prudential from 2001 to 2003, according to the complaint.
In March 2004, Bank of America reached the largest settlement with regulators over improper trading at mutual funds, paying $675 million." (New York Times, Aug 28, 2006).

Putnam Investments

2003

Morgan Stanley on Monday agreed to pay $50 million to settle federal charges of mutual fund abuses as the industry scandal widened amid further withdrawals of funds by investors in Putnam Investments. Morgan Stanley (MWD) settled charges that it failed to tell investors about compensation received for selling certain mutual funds, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and National Association of Securities Dealers said. The deal followed an SEC settlement with Putnam on Thursday that it had allowed some portfolio managers and certain clients to break company rules by buying and selling mutual fund shares very quickly to profit from stale prices. Without admitting or denying the charges, as is customary on Wall Street, Morgan Stanley agreed to provide more disclosure about its relationships with mutual fund groups, the SEC said, adding it was looking at 15 brokers in relation to the Morgan Stanley charges. Morgan Stanley said in a statement it would no longer accept ``soft dollar'' payments -- the paying of brokerages services through commission revenues rather than direct fees, or hard dollar payments -- on retail sales of mutual funds. The probe of the $7 trillion mutual fund industry will expand to include the examination of soft dollar payments and mutual fund fees, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has spearheaded the investigations, said last week..." (Fund Scandal Widens, Morgan Stanley Fined, by Reuters, New York Times, Nov 17, 2003).

Putnam Investments

2004

$110,000,000

Putnam Investments will pay $110 million to settle federal and state allegations of improper trading in the first of a wave of cases over so-called market timing... Half the money -- $5 million in ill-gotten gains and $50 million in penalties -- will settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that Putnam tolerated improper ``market timing'' trades by fund advisers. Putnam, the nation's sixth-largest mutual fund company, will pay that money to investors... Putnam will also pay $5 million in restitution and $50 million in penalties to settle Massachusetts allegations filed last October that it failed to halt market timing by members of a labor union who had 401(k) retirement plans through the Boston-based company. (Putnam to Pay $110 Million to Settle Allegations, Associated Press, April 8, 2004).

Putnam Investments

2005

$40,000,000

"Citigroup will pay a civil fine of $20 million and Putnam Investments will pay $40 million to resolve federal regulators' accusations that they kept from customers the fact that brokers had been paid to recommend certain mutual funds, creating a conflict of interest.
The settlements were announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citigroup and Putnam, a unit of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the agreements. The S.E.C. also accused Citigroup of selling a type of mutual fund shares known as Class B shares to certain large-scale customers who could have earned a higher return from another type of shares.
In a related move, NASD, the brokerage industry's self-policing organization, disclosed that Citigroup, American Express Financial Advisers and J. P. Morgan Chase & Company had agreed to pay a total of $21.25 million for reported violations in sales of mutual funds." (AP / New York Times, March 24, 2005).

Qualcomm

2006

$1,800,000

"Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to pay a $1.8-million penalty to settle complaints that it violated antitrust rules in its $600-million purchase of Flarion Technologies Inc... San Diego-based Qualcomm obtained operational control over Flarion despite a waiting period in which the companies were supposed to function independently..." (AP/Los Anglese Times, April 14, 2006).

Qwest

2004

$250,000,000

"Qwest Communications International Inc. has agreed to pay $250 million to settle financial and disclosure fraud charges, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Qwest, the No. 4 U.S. local phone company, has agreed to settle the case without admitting or denying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations, the source said. The settlement agreement was expected to be announced later this month, the source said. Shares of Qwest were up 3 percent in afternoon trading. The SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating whether Qwest inflated revenue by incorrectly booking network capacity deals to meet Wall Street's revenue expectations, and looking at investments by Qwest employees in the stocks of suppliers. Last October, Qwest restated its financial results for 2000 and 2001, slashing revenue by $2.5 billion and posting net losses deeper than previously reported..." (New York Times, Sept 10, 2004).

Qwest

2005

$400,000,000

Qwest is expected to announce as soon as Tuesday a $400 million settlement of most shareholder lawsuits that were filed after an accounting scandal forced the company to restate billions in revenue, a person familiar with the deal said Monday....
The government investigation into Qwest began in February 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission said fraud at Qwest occurred between April 1999 and March 2002, allowing it to improperly report approximately $3 billion in revenue that facilitated its 2000 merger with U S West.
Among other things, the SEC said Qwest repeatedly booked revenue from one-time sales of equipment and fiber-optic swaps while falsely claiming to investors that the income was recurring. Qwest later restated earnings from 2000 and 2001 to erase about $2.2 billion in revenue.
The shareholder lawsuits alleged that Qwest, the former officers and board members concealed information about the revenue.
The settlement will be paid out of a $750 million reserve that Qwest has set aside for legal purposes, the person said. Last year, Qwest agreed to pay $250 million to settle SEC charges of fraud without admitting or denying wrongdoing... (USA Today, Oct 31, 2005).

Ralphs

2006

$70,000,000

The Ralphs grocery chain said Friday that it had agreed to pay $70 million in fines and restitution to settle criminal charges that it illegally rehired locked-out workers during the supermarket labor dispute in Southern California more than two years ago.
Under a proposed agreement filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Ralphs would plead guilty to five felony charges included in the 53-count grand jury indictment returned against the company in December.
Ralphs was charged with violating federal laws by secretly rehiring about 1,000 locked-out workers during the 4 1/2 -month strike and lockout from October 2003 to February 2004. The case had been scheduled to go to trial Aug. 15 before U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson, who must approve the plea agreement.
In the agreement, Ralphs admitted that it used fake names and Social Security numbers to pull off the deception. Authorities said the scheme was designed to help keep stores running during the labor dispute, the longest and largest in U.S. history involving the supermarket industry.
The labor strife affected 852 stores and nearly 60,000 grocery workers at supermarkets across Southern and Central California. The dispute cost the grocery companies more than $1.5 billion in sales before it ended on Feb. 29, 2004, when workers ratified a new contract whose terms were widely seen as a defeat for the union.
"This labor dispute affected nearly everyone in Southern California," U.S. Atty. Debra Wong Yang said in a statement. "I hope that the resolution of this case will provide some relief to the thousands of workers who were injured by the criminal conduct that unfairly prolonged" the dispute.
Ralphs said it would plead guilty to violating federal laws regarding identity fraud, pension reporting and Social Security and Internal Revenue Service record-keeping, as well as one count of conspiracy.
The grocery chain said it would pay a $20-million fine to the federal government and create a $50-million restitution fund. Most of the money would be paid to the 19,000 Ralphs grocery clerks and meat cutters who were locked out during the dispute.
Officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represented the grocery employees, estimated that some workers could receive as much as $3,000 from the settlement. (Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2006).
A federal judge today approved the Ralphs grocery chain's guilty plea to criminal charges that it illegally rehired locked-out workers during the Southern California supermarket labor dispute almost three years ago.
Under the agreement, Ralphs will pay $20 million in fines and $50 million into a fund to reimburse workers and their union.
Ralphs also agreed to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of the role corporate executives played in the scheme, which involved using fake names and Social Security numbers to hide the identities of workers illegally rehired during the dispute. (Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 2006)

Raymond James Financial Services

2004

$2,600,000

"Fifteen brokerage firms accused of overcharging large-scale investors in mutual funds have reached settlements with regulators that will require them to pay civil penalties totaling some $21.5 million, the regulators announced Thursday. The settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers also will require the brokerages to make refunds to customers. The fines levied on the firms are equivalent to the estimated amount they overcharged customers over a two-year period, the regulators said. The firms include American Express Financial Advisors, which agreed to pay a $3.7 million fine; Raymond James Financial Services, which is paying $2.6 million; and Wachovia Securities, $4.8 million. The SEC and the NASD, the brokerage industry's self-policing group, have found that brokerage firms - apparently inadvertently - often fail to give large-scale investors in mutual funds the discounts they are owed." (15 brokerages settle fund discounts case: Firms accused of overcharging agree to pay $21.5 million. Associated Press, MSNBC News, Feb 12, 2004).

Reliant Resources

2003

$50,000,000

"Reliant Resources Inc. agreed to pay up to $50 million to resolve allegations that it squeezed electricity supplies to California and other Western states during the energy crisis... The settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the largest in the history of the agency. The deal requires cash-strapped Reliant to shell out $25 million over three years as well as up to $25 million from the sale of below-cost electricity generated by three of its California power plants... The money would go into a fund to compensate ratepayers... The agreement, approved Thursday by FERC's three commissioners, resolves the bulk of the allegations against Reliant stemming from the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001, when electricity and natural gas prices soared and blackouts swept California... But Reliant and dozens of other electricity sellers remain on the hook for more than $3 billion in refunds for alleged electricity overcharges--a figure that California officials contend should total closer to $9 billion... Reliant did not admit to wrongdoing in accepting the settlement. But the Houston company, which replaced most of its top management in the last year, for the first time acknowledged that it must be held accountable for its behavior... In January, Reliant reached another FERC settlement, in which it paid California $13.8 million for shutting down power plants on two days in June 2000 that denied the state much-needed energy and drove up prices... The company in August agreed to pay $836,000 to settle allegations that it gamed electricity markets... Reliant remains part of a Justice Department investigation into manipulation of California energy markets... In evidence submitted to FERC in March by California as part of its quest for refunds, Reliant is frequently accused of reporting phony plant problems to the state grid operator... FERC member[s] said they regretted that the commission's penalty authority was limited to ordering only disgorgement of profits... The settlement frees Reliant from accusations that it shut down some power plants or offered some electricity at prices so high they were sure to be rejected, thereby driving up the profit from the electricity it did sell into the market... The agreement also resolves a FERC investigation into whether Reliant and a subsidiary of London-based oil giant BP manipulated Southwestern electricity prices through bogus trades in April 2000. BP separately settled for $3 million in July... Reliant agreed to allow close monitoring of its power sales in Western markets for the next year. FERC could have stripped the company of its ability to sell power into the markets..." (Reliant to Pay Up to $50 Million. By Nancy Rivera Brooks, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2003).

Reliant Resources

2003

$13,800,000

"In January, Reliant reached another FERC settlement, in which it paid California $13.8 million for shutting down power plants on two days in June 2000 that denied the state much-needed energy and drove up prices... The company in August agreed to pay $836,000 to settle allegations that it gamed electricity markets..." ((Reliant to Pay Up to $50 Million. By Nancy Rivera Brooks, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2003).

Riggs Bank

2004

$25,000,000

For "failing to adequately monitor asuspicious activities" involving Saudi Arabian accounts, the "largest such penalty ever imposed on an American bank. At Riggs Bank, a Tangled Path Led to Scandal, By Timothy L. O'Brien, New York Times, July 19, 2004.

Riggs Bank

2005

$16,000,000

"Riggs National Corp.'s U.S. banking unit agreed to plead guilty to failing to report suspicious financial transactions, including more than $10 million deposited by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The bank agreed to pay a $16 million fine... The guilty plea, to be entered in federal court in Washington, is a step toward resolving a scandal that led U.S. prosecutors to spend more than a year probing how Riggs handled the money of international and embassy clients, including officials of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea..." (Riggs to Plead Guilty, Pay $16 Mln in Money Laundering Case. Bloomberg, Jan 27, 2005)

Riscorp

1998

$1,750,000

Riscorp Inc & William Griffin [5mo prison term, 5mo home confinement, concurrent 3yrs probation]. US Dept of Justice civil and/or criminal actions relating to illegal corporate domestic money-in-politics activity (Political Moneyline).

Roche Holding AG

2001

462 million euros

Rockwell International

199?

$18,500,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Rockwell International

199?

$6,500,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Rollins Environmental Services

$1,900,000

"Rollins was fined $ 1.9 million for its involvement in illegal shipments of hazardous ash; this year, after running eighteen years on various temporary permits, it received a final operating license." (Sevanick and Lipsett, Environmental Background Information Center, citing Up in smoke; Clean Air Act amendments, The Nation, October 23, 1989).

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

1999

$18,000,000

"Agreed to pay a record $18 million criminal fine and has agreed to a 21 federal felony count plea agreement for dumping waste oil and hazardous chemicals and lying to the U.S. Coast Guard... Royal Caribbean admitted that it routinely dumped waste oil from its fleet of cruise ships.. It also pleaded guilty to the unprecedented charge that it deliberately dumped into U.S. harbors and coastal areas many other types of pollutants, including hazardous chemicals from photo processing equipment, dry cleaning shops and printing presses. The $18 million fine is the largest ever to be paid by a cruise line in connection with polluting U.S. waters."

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

199?

$9,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Royal Dutch/Shell Group

2004

$120,000,000

$30,000,000

"The $120 million civil fine is the third-largest imposed by the SEC for alleged accounting fraud, behind WorldCom Inc.'s agreement to pay investors $500 million in May 2003, and $150 million in a fine and restitution by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced earlier this month." (AP/Chicago Tribune, Aug 24, 2004).

Ryland Mortgage

199?

$4,200,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Samsung

2005

$300,000,000

"Samsung Electronics Company, the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, agreed Thursday to plead guilty and pay a $300 million fine for participating in a global conspiracy to fix prices, federal prosecutors said. It is the second-largest criminal antitrust fine ever levied.
The Justice Department has spent more than three years investigating Samsung of Korea, along with its competitors Hynix Semiconductor of Korea and Infineon Technologies of Germany, on charges of conspiring to fix prices of dynamic random access memory chips from April 1999 to June 2002. Both Hynix and Infineon have already pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.
DRAM chips are the most common type of computer memory products and are found in personal computers, hand-held devices, printers and other consumer electronics. In 2004, the market in those chips totaled $7.7 billion...
Samsung's plea agreement brings the total fines related to this investigation to $645 million. In April, Hynix pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $185 million fine, and in October 2004, Infineon pleaded guilty and was fined $160 million. The fine against Samsung was larger because the company controls the largest portion of the DRAM market. (The single largest fine in a criminal antitrust case, $500 million, was levied in 1999 against the vitamin maker Hoffman-LaRoche.)
The one-count felony charge against Samsung Electronics and its American subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor, will be filed in a federal district court in San Francisco in the coming weeks. The government has accused the chip companies of conspiring through telephone calls, meetings and e-mail correspondence over a period of more than three years.
Micron Technology, a memory chip maker in Boise, Idaho, has been cooperating with the Justice Department in the investigation in exchange for amnesty, said Thomas O. Barnett, acting assistant attorney general in the antitrust unit. Micron is not expected to face charges, though one Micron executive has pleaded guilty to obstruction charges.
Named as victims in the case were six American computer companies: Dell, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, I.B.M. and Gateway. A related class-action civil suit brought by chip customers in 2002 is still pending...
In December 2004, four Infineon executives, T. Rudd Corwin, Peter Schaefer, Günter Hefner and Heinrich Florian, pleaded guilty to the price-fixing charges; each paid a $250,000 fine. All four men, three of whom are German citizens, also served from four to six months in federal prison.
Alfred P. Censullo, a regional sales manager for Micron, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the investigation, admitting that he withheld and altered documents. Mr. Censullo, based in Boise, was sentenced to six months of home detention..." (Samsung to Pay Large Fine In Price-Fixing Conspiracy, By Laurie J. Flynn, New York Times, Oct 14, 2005).

Saybolt

199?

$3,400,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Schering-Plough

2004

$345,500,000

"Schering-Plough, which makes the antihistamine Claritin and hepatitis C drug Peg-Intron, agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle a federal criminal charge that it paid kickbacks to a health maintenance organization. The company said it will also plead guilty to civil charges and agreed to pay $293 million to cover the loss suffered by Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, because Schering-Plough overcharged for Claritin and failed to give the agency its best price." (CNN/Money.com, July 30, 2004).
How Schering Manipulated Drug Prices and Medicaid, New York Times, July 31, 2004.

Sea-Land Service Inc
(subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds)

1977

$4,000,000

US Federal Maritime Commission civil and/or criminal actions relating to illegal corporate domestic money-in-politics activity.

Sears Bankruptcy Recovery Management Services

199?

$60,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

SGL Carbon Aktiengesellschaft (SGLAG)

199?

$135,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Serono Laboratories

 2005

$704,000,000 

"The Swiss manufacturer of the AIDS treatment drug Serostim agreed Monday to pay $704 million and plead guilty to scheming to boost sagging sales by, among other things, offering kickbacks to doctors to write prescriptions.
As part of the plea, Serono Laboratories will be barred from participating in federal health programs for five years and will pay a criminal fine of $136.9 million and civil penalties of $567 million.
The amount is the third largest payment for health care fraud, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in announcing the plea agreement... Serono offered doctors free trips to the south of France in return for agreeing to write up to 30 new prescriptions for Serostim, which cost $21,000 for a 12-week treatment regimen...
The company also conspired to introduce a new test for AIDS wasting, despite not having FDA approval. The test diagnosed AIDS wasting even in the absence of weight loss, Sullivan said.
He estimated that 85% of Serostim prescriptions were unnecessary.
Five former Serono executives also have been indicted, he said.
The federal investigation grew out of whistle-blower lawsuits filed by U.S. employees of Serono. Four people will split $51 million as their share of the settlement, which is allowed under the federal False Claims Act, Sullivan said.
Monday's settlement is the latest in a series of whistle-blower claims that have resulted in more than $3 billion in payments from drug companies in recent years.
Last month, GlaxoSmithKline said it will pay $150 million to settle claims it overcharged the government for two anti-nausea drugs.
Federal and state officials are looking into 150 price and marketing fraud cases involving more than 500 drugs, according to Peter Keisler, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Division." (USA Today, Oct 17, 2005).

Showa Denko Carbon

199?

$9,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Sidley Austin Brown & Wood

2005

about 20% of $195 million

"The accounting firm KPMG and a law firm have agreed to pay $195 million to as many as 280 wealthy investors who bought four types of questionable shelters, the first major step by the two firms to deal with billions of dollars in potential civil claims.
The agreement also calls for the firms to pay the lead plaintiffs' lawyers $30 million in fees. Papers describing the settlement were filed in federal court in Newark this week; it will be presented to a judge next week for approval.
The settlement covers four tax shelters known as Blips, Flip, Opis and SOS that were sold to investors to help them evade billions of dollars in taxes. All but the SOS shelter were cited in the $456 million deferred-prosecution agreement reached last month that allowed KPMG to avoid a criminal indictment.
The settlement covers buyers of the shelters who received legal opinions or representations from KPMG and the law firm of Brown & Wood, now Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, from Jan. 1, 1996 through Sept. 14 of this year. (KPMG, however, stopped selling the questionable shelters well before that date.) KPMG used other law firms to sell the four shelters, but the settlement covers only those bought through the accounting firm and Brown & Wood.
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood will pay about 20 percent of the $195 million, according to a person briefed on the settlement. Sidley Austin Brown & Wood wrote legal opinions blessing the transactions..." (New York Times, Sept 30, 2005).

SIG Specialists

and

Performance Specialist Group

2004

$5,200,000

"Two New York Stock Exchange floor-trading firms have agreed to pay a total of $5.2 million to settle charges they engaged in improper trading to make profits at customers' expense, securities regulators said on Monday. The settlements stem from a broader investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the NYSE into improper floor-trading practices from 1999 to 2003. SIG Specialists Inc. (SSI) and Performance Specialist Group LLC agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. They join five firms that agreed to pay $241.8 million to settle similar allegations in late March, the SEC and the NYSE said in a joint statement. The SEC and NYSE said in a joint statement the two firms generated illegal profits by executing orders for their own accounts ahead of public customer orders. SIG and Performance Specialist are among the NYSE's seven active specialist firms, which buy and sell certain stocks to dampen volatility and add liquidity. "Through this conduct, the firms improperly profited from trading opportunities; disadvantaged customer orders, which either received inferior prices or went unexecuted altogether and breached their duty to serve as agents to public customer orders," the joint statement said. In certain cases of misconduct, the firms would buy shares on its own account from a public seller and then turn around and sell the same shares on its own account to a public buyer, thus creating a spread for itself, a practice known as "interpositioning," the statement said. In other cases, the firms benefited from executing their own trades first, leaving public trades to lower prices, or leaving processable limit orders entirely unexecuted, the SEC and NYSE said. As part of the settlement, SIG Specialists and Performance Specialist will pay a total of $1.7 million in civil penalties and $3.5 million in the disgorgement of illegal profits, according to the statement.... On March 30, five firms settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. The firms were Bear Wagner Specialists LLC; Fleet Specialist Inc; LaBranche & Co. LLC; Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Specialists LLC and Van der Moolen Specialists USA LLC.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment

2005

$10,000,000

"[A]greed... to pay $10 million and to stop paying radio station employees to feature its artists to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer..." (AP / MSNBC, July 25, 2005).

Sony Pictures Entertainment

2005

$1,500,000

"[T]o settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the studio of citing a fake Connecticut-based movie critic in ads for several films." (Chicago Tribune, Aug 2, 2005).

Southland Corporation

199?

$4,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Southwestern Bell Telephone

1974

$1,000,000

AT&T subsidiary Southwestern Bell Telephone Co excutive T.O. Gravitt [suicide]and James Ashley [fired] . Civil suit by Ashley re: SW Bell wiretapping.

State Farm

2005

"State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. won a reversal of a $1 billion verdict from the Illinois Supreme Court, a decision backed by business groups seeking to limit class-action lawsuits.
The ruling indicates how the Illinois court will act in other cases, including a $10.1 billion award against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA over the marketing of ``light'' cigarettes, said Anthony J. Sebok, a professor at Brooklyn Law School. Altria's shares rose to a record.
``The court made it crystal clear that individual questions of fact are not to be mowed down by overly broad class-action principles,'' said Victor Schwartz, an attorney with Shook Hardy & Bacon in Washington, which represents Altria in other litigation. ``If similar principles are applied, it's difficult to see how the judgment against Altria can be sustained.''
The Illinois court said a lawsuit claiming State Farm committed fraud and breach of contract shouldn't have been certified as a nationwide class action. State Farm customers' complaints were too dissimilar to be grouped together, the court said in sending the case back to the trial court... " (Bloomberg, Aug 19, 2005).

State Street Global Markets

2005

$1,400,000

"A unit of the State Street Corporation, a Boston bank, was fined $1.4 million yesterday by NASD for its failure to report thousands of corporate and municipal bond trades over a 17-month period.
The $5 billion in unreported trades included 89 percent of the corporate bond trades and 79 percent of the municipal bond trades cleared by the unit, known as State Street Global Markets, from July 2003 through December 2004, the NASD said.
The fine is the largest imposed to date by NASD for bond trade reporting violations, and is intended to send a message that regulators are determined to improve reporting in the relatively opaque bond markets.
"State Street Global's reporting failures deprived the markets, investors and regulators of critical information, and impaired the integrity of bond trading data that market participants rely upon to make informed investment decisions," the vice chairwoman of the NASD, Mary L. Schapiro, said in a statement yesterday.
State Street did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement..." (New York Times, Nov 23, 2005).

Sumitomo

1998

$125,000,000

See Merrill Lynch entry above.

Summitville Consolidated Mining

199?

$20,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Sunbelt Savings Association

1990

$8,500,000

Sunbelt Savings Association executive Edwin McBirney - US Dept of Justice savings & loan case [penalty and restitution].

Sun-Diamond Growers

1995

$1,500,000

Illegal contributions and use of corporate funds.

Taco Bell

2003

$30,000,000

Taco Bell to Pay in 'Chihuahua' Lawsuit. A federal jury Wednesday ordered Taco Bell Corp. to pay $30.1 million to two men who claimed the fast-food chain stole their idea for the advertising campaign featuring a talking Chihuahua. Thomas Rinks and Joseph Shields, both of the Grand Rapids area, sued Taco Bell in 1998, saying they pitched the idea for a character called "Psycho Chihuahua" more than a year before Taco Bell began airing the dog commercials in 1997. Taco Bell advertising executives, the men claim, made a verbal agreement to use their design. AP, June 7, 2003

TAP Pharmaceutical Products

2001

$885,000,000

"TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc., a major U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer, was forced to pay $875 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in connection with its fraudulent drug pricing and marketing conduct with regard to Lupron, a drug sold by TAP primarily for treatment of advanced prostate cancer in men. TAP is a joint venture started by Abbott Laboratories and Takeda Pharmaceuticals of Japan."

"In December [2022], Bayer AG, based in Germany, announced that it had set aside $257 million to settle allegations that it failed to pay rebates owed to Medicaid from 1995 to 2000. The Medicaid program is a shared federal and state program to provide health insurance to the poor. The settlement comes as state and federal prosecutors nationwide are investigating drug pricing and sales tactics by dozens of pharmaceutical companies that they allege have defrauded the public of billions of dollars and driven up the nation's Medicare and Medicaid bills. In the fall of 2001, federal prosecutors in Boston won a record $885 million settlement from TAP Pharmaceutical Products in a combined criminal and civil case that alleged the company inflated the price of Lupron, the top-selling drug for prostate cancer. TAP officials were indicted and are awaiting trial on charges of giving kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Lupron. Some 20 lawsuits filed against two dozen pharmaceutical companies by citizens and states across the country have been consolidated into one case before a federal judge in Boston. The suit alleges that the companies inflated the prices the government paid for prescriptions for the elderly and disabled through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. (Big Fines Seen in US Probe of 2 Drugmakers, By Alice Dembner, Boston Globe, April 16, 2003).

Teledyne Inc.

199?

$1,500,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Teledyne Industries

199?

$17,500,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Teledyne Industries

199?

$4,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Tenet Healthcare

2004

$30,000,000

"Tenet Healthcare Corp. is in talks that could result in it paying more than $1 billion to settle hundreds of claims of unnecessary heart surgeries and to end most of the federal investigations into the hospital chain's business practices, sources familiar with the talks said Thursday. The discussions are preliminary. If negotiations fail, the Santa Barbara-based company faces the prospect of civil and criminal trials around the country... This year, Tenet agreed to pay nearly $31 million to end two federal inquiries, including $22.5 million to resolve allegations of improper financial arrangements with doctors at a Florida hospital..." (Tenet Could Pay $1 Billion to Settle Claims, By Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2004).

Tenet Healthcare

2004

$54,000,000

$395,000,000

"Embattled hospital chain Tenet Healthcare will pay $395 million to settle lawsuits with former patients who accused one of its medical centers of performing unnecessary heart surgeries... The agreement calls for Tenet to establish a settlement fund by Dec. 31 for more than 750 people who filed civil lawsuits over heart bypass operations and cardiac catheterizations at Redding Medical Center in Redding, Calif. Attorneys said individual payments will vary based on the scope of the injuries or medical complications suffered by each former patient. The settlement breaches some covenants in the firm's bank credit line, which has not been drawn. As a result, the nation's second-largest for-profit hospital chain said it would terminate the credit line by year's end and try to negotiate a new one in 2005. The settlement follows Tenet's August agreement to pay a $54 million settlement of federal and state investigations into the heart surgeries. The company sold the Redding facility in June... Last week, Tenet warned that fourth-quarter charges could top $1 billion and said financial results for 2005 would likely not exceed break-even. The company is on trial in a California case in which executives are accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to doctors to steer patients to a Tenet hospital in San Diego..." (USAToday.com, Dec 21, 2004).

Thomas Weisel Partners

2004

$12,500,000

"Deutsche Bank Securities will pay $87.5 million and Thomas Weisel Partners will pay $12.5 million to settle conflict-of-interest securities research charges with government regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. The settlements follow similar pacts reached in April 2003 between 10 other investment banks and the SEC, state securities regulators, the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange over allegations that the investment banks had undue influence on securities research at brokerage firms. In addition to paying penalties, both banks must separate their research and investment banking departments, restructure how research is reviewed and supervised, prohibit analysts from receiving compensation for investment banking activities, and make independent research available to investors, the SEC said in a statement... The SEC alleges that, from mid-1999 through mid-2001, the firms' investment banking units influenced their research analysts, creating conflicts of interest and supervisory deficiencies. The SEC also said the firms issued unsound research reports... Of the total to be paid by Deutsche Bank, $7.5 million is a fine for obstructing the SEC's investigation into its business practices, said the SEC statement." (CNN/Money, Aug 24, 2004).

Time Warner

2004

$210,000,000

Time Warner will reportedly pay $210 million to settle a Justice Department investigation of securities fraud involving accounting irregularities at the media giant's America Online unit... The charges of accounting improprieties at AOL date back to 2000. Some analysts have been expecting Time Warner to pay $500 million to $600 million to settle all of its criminal and civil charges with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission... Many observers have expected Time Warner to sell AOL at some point as a way to end a problematic relationship. For years, AOL has dragged down the value of Time Warner's shares even though it throws off a tremendous amount of cash. Time Warner has already reduced the size of its debt burden by about $10 billion, to under $20 billion, in the past year or so by selling non-core assets. It remains to be seen if Time Warner could find a buyer who might be willing to pay its asking price, which is said to be in the range of $15 billion... The SEC probe focuses on how Time Warner described a $400 million payment that AOL received from Bertelsmann, which formerly owned half of AOL Europe, according to news reports. The Justice Department probe was looking at allegations AOL gave smaller companies money to buy ads on AOL's Web site, inflating the company's revenue, according to published reports... In addition to the federal investigations, Time Warner faces a shareholder suit filed in a New York federal court that claims the company inflated advertising sales by $1.7 billion from 1999 to July 2002."

Time Warner

2005

$300,000,000

"...Time Warner Inc. said Monday it would pay $300 million and restate three years of financial results to settle civil fraud charges stemming from its accounting of online advertising revenues and subscriber counts at its AOL unit.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission also calls for the world's largest media company to open its books to an independent examiner, which could result in additional restatements.
The details of the deal, which include no admission or denial of wrongdoing, are in line with a proposal the company made and disclosed last December. At that time, Time Warner also said it had agreed to pay $210 million to resolve charges of criminal securities fraud in a separate investigation by the Department of Justice...
The settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which will also manage the distribution of the $300 million penalty to affected investors. Those payouts, which are akin to class action distributions, will be made under the "Fair Fund" provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The SEC had accused Time Warner of several fraudulent acts, including inflating its own online advertising revenues with a number of "round-trip" transactions in which it essentially provided other companies with the means to buy online advertising.
The SEC also said Time Warner overstated the number of AOL subscribers by counting members from bulk subscription sales to companies even though the company knew that they had not been activated.
Further, because Time Warner failed to treat AOL Europe as a consolidated business from March 2000 to January 2002, as it should have, the company overstated its financial results for those time periods, the SEC said. Time Warner has since revised its results to reflect that change." (Chicago Tribune, March 21, 2005).

Time Warner

2005

$3,000,000,000

"Time Warner Inc. hopes to finally exorcise the ghosts of its merger with America Online, after agreeing yesterday to set aside $3 billion to settle lawsuits from shareholders and employees who were stung by the ill-starred 2001 combination.
Under an agreement in principle reached with the main class-action plaintiff, the Minnesota State Board of Investments, the media company will pay $2.4 billion to aggrieved shareholders who bought or acquired AOL or Time Warner securities between Jan. 27, 1999, and Aug. 27, 2002. That settlement - which must still be approved by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York - encompasses some 30 separate lawsuits that were consolidated by the court.
The company set aside $600 million to settle other pending legal actions, including the claims of Time Warner employees.
The suits alleged that executives at both companies misled shareholders about AOL's financial condition as well as the prospects of what was briefly called AOL Time Warner, inflating the value of both companies' shares and entering into a deal that might otherwise not have been consummated." (New York Times, Aug 2, 2005).

TOBACCO

R.J. Reynolds

Lorillard

Philip Morris USA

Brown & Williamson

2004

$590,900,000

"The tobacco industry must pay $590.9 million for nicotine patches, telephone hot lines, advertising and other programs to help Louisiana smokers kick the habit, a jury ruled in a class-action lawsuit Friday. Lawyers for plaintiffs had asked for $1 billion to cover a dozen components of a comprehensive statewide quit-smoking program, but they praised Friday’s ruling, saying it would greatly help the health of hundreds of thousands of Louisiana smokers... The defendants are R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, Philip Morris USA and Brown & Williamson." (La. Hits Big Tobacco For $590M. CBSNews.com, May 21, 2004).

Tokai Carbon Ltd.

199?

$6,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Tosco

2000

$2,000,000

"Tosco Corporation will pay approximately $2 million in fines and penalties related to a February 1999 refinery explosion that killed four workers. Tosco pled no contest in January to charges that it violated California's labor code by failing to comply with safety regulations at the company facility in Avon, California where the blast occurred. "I appreciate that our resolution of this case does not make the families whole who lost loved ones in this terrible accident," said Contra Costa County District Attorney Gary Yancey. "However, under the law that existed at the time of the event, these were the most severe charges that could be brought given all the facts and circumstances." California labor law was amended last year and as of January 1, 2000, industrial accidental death cases, or cases where serious injury occurs, can result in substantially stiffer penalties. In August 1999, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined Tosco $810,750 for 33 alleged violations of workplace safety rules related to the accident, accusing it of willful negligence. The February accident was the latest in a string of fire incidents at Tosco facilities." (Multinational Monitor, March 2000)

Toshiba

1999

$1,000,000,000

"In 1999, Toshiba settled a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit that arose from claims that the company had sold notebooks with defective floppy drives."(Judge OKs $1.1 billion Microsoft deal, by Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com, July 21, 2003).

Tyco International

2002

$2,500,000

"A former independent director of Tyco International pleaded guilty yesterday to securities fraud, becoming the first board member to be charged with a crime in the recent wave of corporate scandals. The director, Frank E. Walsh Jr., acknowledged that he received a $20 million payment from Tyco for helping to broker an acquisition but did not disclose his compensation arrangement to the rest of the board or to shareholders. Mr. Walsh, 61, avoided a prison sentence by agreeing yesterday to repay the money and a $2.5 million fine as part of a plea agreement... Walsh was charged with a felony violation of the Martin Act, the state's general business law. After a statement, he handed prosecutors an envelope containing checks worth $22.5 million as part of his agreement settling the criminal charge. He settled a related civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission by agreeing not to serve as a director or officer of a publicly traded company. [The case] may herald a shift among state and federal criminal prosecutors who have so far passed over the directors of scandal-plagued corporations and focused on the activities of top executives." (Andrew Ross Sorkin, Tyco Figure Pays $22.5 Million in Guilty Plea, New York Times, December 18, 2002).

Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group

2004

$10,000,000

"A Tyco International subsidiary will pay $10 million in federal environmental fines for dumping wastewater into a Connecticut town sewer system, The Associated Press has learned. Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group has been the subject of a lengthy federal environmental probe. Three former employees have pleaded guilty to Clean Water Act violations for covering up the wastewater discharge near its now-closed plant in Manchester. The corporate plea agreement will be finalized in federal court next week, but two sources close to the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the $10 million figure had been agreed upon... "Tyco is committed to operational excellence, and that includes running our facility in accordance with environmental laws," Polk said. "Upon learning of the government's investigation, we immediately began our own comprehensive internal investigation and as a result, promptly took corrective actions."... Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Arthur J. Rocque Jr. filed a civil suit last year alleging similar violations of state environmental laws. They said the company illegally built piping at its Manchester plant to allow discharge of untreated materials into sanitary sewers, and that both plants failed to do required sampling and submit mandated reports..." (AP/ABCNews.com, Apr 22, 2004).

Tyco International

2006

$50,000,000

To settle charges related to allegations of accounting fraud by the high-tech conglomerate's prior management. Tyco was accused of inflating operating earnings, undervaluing acquired assets, overvaluing acquired liabilities and using improper accounting rules. (Los Angeles Times, Apr 17, 2006)

Tyson Foods

199?

$4,000,000

Multinational Monitor, July/August 1999

Tyson Foods Inc

1997

$6,000,000

Independent Counsel civil and/or criminal actions relating to illegal corporate domestic money-in-politics activity.

Tyson Fresh Meats Inc

2004

$1.280 billion

(thrown out)

A federal judge threw out a jury's $1.28 billion verdict against the nation's largest beef packer, Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., ruling Friday that it did not illegally manipulate cattle prices. U.S. Senior District Judge Lyle Strom said the cattlemen who sued the Arkansas-based company failed to produce evidence at trial to support the verdict "with respect to both liability and damages." Strom granted a motion filed by Tyson, which had denied using its contracts with a select few ranchers to drive down cattle prices for other producers. Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., the beef division of Tyson Foods, had asked Strom to throw out the jury's Feb. 17 verdict against the company or grant a new trial. The group of cattlemen suing Tyson wanted the judge to approve the verdict and set a schedule for damage claims and other relief. Jurors found Tyson used its contracts to create a captive supply of cattle that it used as leverage to drive down the price of cattle on the open, or cash, market. The jury found Tyson's actions depressed the cash market by $1.28 billion from February 1994 to October 2002. The size of the damages was to be determined later, depending on the size of the class, but the judge's ruling Friday said there was insufficient evidence to support the damages. "Defendant's use of captive supply arrangements is supported by legitimate business justification of competing in the industry," the judge wrote. Six cattlemen sued Tyson, known then as IBP Inc., in 1996 claiming the company's use of these contracts, or marketing agreements, violated the federal Packers and Stockyards Act. The suit was granted class-action status, with the six plaintiffs claiming to represent as many as 30,000 ranchers who sold cattle to Tyson on the cash market during the time in question. In asking Strom to throw out the verdict, Tyson argued that the jury didn't follow the law closely enough. The company also suggested that the subject matter and applicable law may have been too complex for the jurors." (Judge Cooks Tyson Beef Verdict. AP, CBSNews.com, April 23, 2004).