16 Most Fined Companies in the US
Breaking the law as a big company in America comes with a hefty price tag. Some firms get busted so often you’d think they collect fines as a hobby.
We’re talking billions of dollars in penalties, and most of these guys just keep doing the same stuff that got them in trouble in the first place. Here is a list of 16 companies that have gotten hit with the biggest fines and settlements from US authorities, based on recent penalty tracking data.
3M
3M agreed to a massive $12.5 billion settlement in 2023 to resolve claims over PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ contaminating U.S. drinking water. They also set aside more than $6 billion to settle lawsuits over defective military earplugs.
Together, these made 3M one of the most heavily fined companies in recent years. Their long history with PFAS—used in firefighting foams and coatings—has left a costly legacy.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson has paid billions in settlements over narcotics, talc powder lawsuits, and faulty medical devices. In 2019, they agreed to a $572 million opioid settlement in Oklahoma (later reduced), and in 2021 pledged $5 billion as part of a nationwide opioid deal.
They’ve also faced thousands of lawsuits over asbestos in baby powder and faulty hip implants. While the exact totals vary, J&J’s legal troubles show how even trusted household brands can rack up massive penalties.
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Bank of America
Bank of America has coughed up nearly $58 billion over the years, mostly for their starring role in the 2008 housing crash. They handed out garbage mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, then acted shocked when everything collapsed.
They paid $11 billion just for foreclosure abuse and another $10.3 billion to Fannie Mae. Even after nearly destroying the economy, they kept getting caught doing sketchy stuff.
PG&E
Pacific Gas & Electric paid $16.1 billion across 61 different cases for burning down half of California. Their crappy, old equipment kept starting wildfires that killed people and wiped entire towns off the map.
The 2018 Camp Fire alone killed 85 people and destroyed Paradise, California. They filed for bankruptcy in 2019 but somehow still got to keep running the power grid. Makes perfect sense.
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase has handed over $31 billion, with $13 billion coming from one massive mortgage fraud settlement in 2013. They bought up Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual during the financial crisis, basically collecting other banks’ legal problems like trading cards.
Recently got hit for another $348 million for not watching their traders properly. Same bank, same problems, different decade.
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Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo turned fraud into an art form. First, they opened millions of fake accounts using real customers’ names to hit sales targets—cost them $3 billion in 2020.
Then in 2022, they paid another $3.7 billion for screwing up auto loans so badly that people lost their cars and homes for no reason. They’ve basically turned customer abuse into a profit center.
Meta (Facebook)
Meta got slapped with a $1.2 billion fine in 2023 for shipping European user data to the US without protection. Their whole business model is collecting personal info to sell ads, which keeps getting them in trouble with privacy cops worldwide.
They pay these massive fines and then keep doing exactly the same thing. At least they’re consistent.
TD Bank
TD Bank agreed to pay $3 billion in 2024 to settle investigations into its anti–money laundering failures. Regulators found that the bank failed to properly monitor suspicious transactions, allowing criminal networks to move hundreds of millions through its accounts.
As part of the deal, TD faces years of oversight to clean up its compliance systems.
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Cummins
Cummins paid $2 billion in 2024 for cheating on emissions tests with 630,000 pickup trucks. They installed software that made trucks look clean during testing but pollute like crazy on real roads.
Basically pulled a Volkswagen but with American trucks. EPA called it the biggest Clean Air Act penalty ever. Now they have to fix 85% of those trucks in three years or pay even more.
McKesson
McKesson, one of America’s biggest drug pushers—sorry, distributors—paid $8.5 billion for flooding the country with narcotics. They were supposed to watch for suspicious orders and report them to cops.
Instead, they kept shipping massive amounts of pills to obvious pill mills and asked no questions. Helped fuel an addiction crisis that’s still killing people today.
Walgreens
Walgreens dropped $7.6 billion mainly for turning their pharmacies into opioid vending machines. They filled obviously fake prescriptions and ignored clear signs that certain locations were just drug dealers with pharmacy licenses.
Some stores were basically pill mills with a Walgreens sign out front. Also got caught overcharging government health programs because why not double-dip?
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Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs keeps getting busted for being too clever for their own good. They helped steal billions from Malaysia’s development fund in the 1MDB scandal, plus paid huge fines for mortgage fraud during 2008.
Their attitude seems to be ‘push every boundary possible and pay fines when caught.’ Treats penalties like business expenses, which they probably are.
Citigroup
Citigroup paid $12.8 billion mostly for their mortgage shenanigans during the financial crisis. Like other big banks, they packaged and sold mortgages they knew were garbage while betting against them.
Classic move. They also keep getting dinged for various compliance screwups and recently got hit again for not being able to manage their own data properly.
Apple
In 2024, the European Commission fined Apple €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) for anti-competitive App Store practices. Regulators found that Apple prevented music streaming apps like Spotify from informing users about cheaper subscription options available outside the App Store.
It was Apple’s first major EU antitrust fine and signaled tougher scrutiny of how they run their digital marketplace.
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Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $8.3 billion in 2020 for basically inventing the painkiller addiction crisis with OxyContin. They knew their drug was crazy addictive but marketed it as safe for long-term use anyway.
Targeted doctors who were already prescribing lots of painkillers and gave them fake science about addiction risks. Had to plead guilty to fraud and get out of the drug business entirely.
Binance
In 2023, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators for failing to stop money laundering and sanctions violations. Founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to four months in prison.
The case showed how lightly regulated crypto giants could become hubs for illicit finance until regulators cracked down.
Same Crimes, Different Day
The thing that really irritates you is that the majority of these businesses continue to engage in the same practices that initially resulted in their fine. Tech companies continue to violate privacy, banks continue to defraud consumers, and pharmaceutical companies continue to fabricate information about their goods.
These billion-dollar fines are handled like parking tickets. America’s corporate penalties have totaled more than $1 trillion since 2000, indicating that the system as a whole is to blame, not just a few bad actors. Breaking the law has become a common business expense for some of America’s largest corporations.
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