Corporate Offenders Swamp Trump: Corporations Meeting with Trump Have Paid Penalties Totaling Nearly $90 Billion Since 2010
Donald Trump often seems most at home at-home meeting with titans of industry. But a Public Citizen analysis finds that the executives rubbing elbows with the president represent corporations that are far from upstanding corporate citizens.
More than 100 of the executives that have met with President Trump since he was elected – 122 – come from companies that paid a fine or penalty since 2010, a Public Citizen analysis of data from Good Jobs First’s Corporate Research Project finds.
Including also fines associated with Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil – effectively represented inside the administration by former executives Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson – these companies have paid a grand total of nearly $90 billion to resolve regulatory and legal violations imposed by the Department of Justice and federal regulatory enforcement agencies.
Public Citizen’s analysis is based on the Violation Tracker database, which is produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First.
Table 1: Top Corporate Offenders Whose Executives Met with Trump Between Election Day and May 30, 2017
| CORPORATION | EXECUTIVE MEETING WITH TRUMP | PENALTIES SINCE 2010 |
|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO | $28,675,456,874 |
| Volkswagen | David Geanacopoulos, senior executive vice president for public affairs and public policy | $19,225,193,500 |
| Citigroup Inc. | Michael Corbat, CEO | $15,518,046,942 |
| Goldman Sachs | Gary Cohn, former COO, director of the National Economic Council under Trump | $9,311,300,000 |
| HSBC | Patrick Burke, president and CEO of U.S. subsidiary | $4,066,684,500 |
Penalty source: Violation Tracker via Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First.
In a previous report, Public Citizen tallied meetings between President Trump and corporate executives during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency. This report supplements the earlier report’s corporate executive meeting data with Politico’s Unauthorized White House visitor log, the most comprehensive resource available for tracking with whom the president is meeting.
The bulk of the penalties, or nearly $86 billion, were paid by 15 huge corporations. The largest amount paid in total penalties was paid by megabank JPMorgan Chase, which paid more than $28 billion since 2010, largely to resolve Justice Department lawsuits connected with abusive actions related to the 2008 financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who is a member of Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, has emerged as a regular defender of Trump and Trump’s policies.
Among the big banks, only Bank of America, whose executives have not met with Trump, has been penalized more.
Citigroup, which was required to pay more than $15 billion, and Goldman Sachs, which was required to pay more than $9 billion, both largely to settle allegations of violations committed in the run-up to the financial crisis, also are among the top five corporate offenders whose executives have met with Trump. Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat co-chaired Trump’s “CEO Town Hall”; Gary Cohn, a Goldman Sachs executive, left the corporation to join Trump’s cabinet as director of the National Economic Council.
Other large penalties were levied against Volkswagen and HSBC. Volkswagen was required by the Environmental Protection Agency to pay more than $19 billion in penalties connected with its conspiracy to use illegal “defeat devices” that enabled its diesel-fueled vehicles to cheat required fuel efficiency tests. Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three criminal felony counts for its illegal scheme. Volkswagen executive David Geanacopoulos was among the auto industry leaders with whom Trump met during a March visit to Detroit, Mich.
HSBC paid more than $4 billion to settle allegations for numerous violations, a sizeable portion of which was a fine for the international bank’s failure to prevent money-laundering activities tied to drug traffickers and international terrorist groups. HSBC admitted to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations in exchange for a deferred prosecution agreement. Patrick Burke, president and CEO of HSBC Bank USA, attended Trump’s CEO Town Hall.
In light of President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ frequent tough talk on crime, it is important to note that, in practice, the Trump-Sessions era of federal law enforcement demonstrates zero tolerance for undocumented immigrants and low-level offenders while at the same time a high degree of lenience when it comes to corporate offenders, as a recent settlement with Citigroup and an expected settlement with Wal-Mart over allegations of bribing officials in Mexico show.
Also noteworthy are the administration’s efforts to weaken enforcement agencies such as the EPA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whose job is to prevent corporations from harming the public and punish corporate violators.
Table 2: Alphabetical List of Corporate Offenders Whose Executives Have Met with Trump Between Election Day and May 30, 2017
| CORPORATION | EXECUTIVE WHO MET WITH TRUMP | TITLE | PENALTIES SINCE 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3M | Inge Thulin | Chairman/President | $3,932,948 |
| Accenture | Julie Sweet | CEO of North America | $63,675,000 |
| AECOM | Daniel Tishman | Vice Chairman | $18,520,342 |
| Aetna | Mark Bertolini | Chairman/CEO | $1,858,432 |
| AK Steel | Roger Newport | CEO | $6,766,105 |
| Alaska Airlines | Brad Tilden | President/CEO | $4,437,829 |
| Alcoa | Roy Harvey | CEO | $385,267,149 |
| Alphabet/Google | Larry Page | CEO | $541,500,000 |
| Amazon | Jeff Bezos | CEO | $637,259 |
| American Axle and Manufacturing | David Dauch | CEO | $491,327 |
| Amgen | Robert Brad | CEO | $786,905,400 |
| Anthem, Inc. | Joe Swedish | Chairman/President/CEO | $523,102 |
| Apache Stainless Equipment | Ed Paradowski | President | $2,506,500 |
| Apollo Global Management | Josh Harris | Co-Founder | $91,807,554 |
| Apple | Tim Cook | CEO | $32,500,000 |
| ArcelorMittal | John Brett | CEO | $5,672,180 |
| Archer Daniels Midland | Juan Luciano | Chairman/CEO | $64,995,134 |
| Arconic | Klaus Kleinfeld | Chairman/CEO | $569,722 |
| AT&T | Randall Stephenson | CEO | $352,921,285 |
| Atlas Air | William Flynn | President/CEO | $17,590,000 |
| AutoZone | Bill Rhodes | Chairman/President/CEO | $536,622 |
| Bayer AG | Werner Baumann | CEO | $11,297,539 |
| BB&T | John Allison IV | Former CEO | $83,079,976 |
| Best Buy | Hubert Joly | CEO | $3,936,295 |
| BlackRock | Larry Fink | Chairman/CEO | $13,925,350 |
| Blackstone | Stephen A. Schwarzman | Chairman/CEO/Co-Founder | $108,217,263 |
| BMW Group | Harald Kruger | CEO | $4,620,900 |
| BNY Mellon | Gerald Hassell | Chairman/CEO | $741,520,000 |
| Boeing | Dennis Muilenburg | CEO | $58,406,212 |
| Campbell Soup Company | Denise Morrison | President/CEO | $226,300 |
| Carlyle Group | David Rubinstein | Co-CEO/Founder/Director | $8,194,413 |
| Caterpillar Inc. | Doug Oberhelman | Chairman/Former CEO | $3,014,549 |
| Celgene | Robert Hugin | Executive Chairman | $8,680 |
| Century Aluminum | Mike Bless | CEO | $607,475 |
| Cerberus Capital Management | Stephen Feinberg | Co-founder/CEO | $26,644,771 |
| Charter Communications | Thomas Rutledge | CEO | $3,907,874 |
| Cigna Corporation | David Cordani | President/CEO | $225,000 |
| Cisco | Chuck Robbins | CEO | $48,005,000 |
| Citigroup Inc. | Michael Corbat | CEO | $15,518,046,942 |
| Corning | Wendell Weeks | Chairman/CEO | $72,720,858 |
| Dana Inc. | James Kamsickas | President/CEO | $373,172 |
| Delaware North Companies, Inc. | Jerry Jacobs | Co-CEO | $5,100 |
| Dell Technologies | Michael Dell | Founder/Chairman/CEO | $264,338,826 |
| Deloitte | Catherine Engelbert | CEO | $12,740,959 |
| Delta Airlines | Ed Bastian | CEO | $43,126,418 |
| Dow Chemical | Andrew Liveris | Chairman/President/CEO | $9,442,665 |
| Eli Lilly | Dave Ricks | CEO | $29,835,685 |
| Emerson Electric | David Farr | Chairman/CEO | $94,422 |
| Evraz North America | Conrad Winkle | CEO | $572,929 |
| ExxonMobil | Rex Tillerson | Former Executive, Cabinet Member | $81,635,851 |
| EY | Mark Weinberger | Chairman/CEO | $148,170,000 |
| Sheryl Sandberg | COO | $5,600 | |
| Fedex | Fred Smith | Chairman/President/CEO | $9,020,344 |
| Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV | Sergio Marchionne | CEO | $178,897,126 |
| Ford Motor Company | Alan Mulally | Former CEO | $17,461,950 |
| Gap Inc. | Art Peck | CEO | $23,000 |
| General Dynamics | Phebe Novakonic | Chairwoman/CEO | $4,243,927 |
| General Electric | Jack Welch | Former Chairman/CEO | $163,780,501 |
| General Motors | Mary Barra | Chairman/CEO | $936,595,922 |
| Goldman Sachs | Gary Cohn | Former Executive, Cabinet Member | $9,311,300,000 |
| Griffon Corporation | Ron Kramer | CEO | $140,820 |
| Guggenheim Partners, LLC | Alan Schwartz | Executive Chairman | $20,000,000 |
| Harley-Davidson | Mike Levatich | CEO | $27,000,000 |
| Harris Corporation | Bill Brown | Chairman/President/CEO | $212,922 |
| Hearst | Steven Swartz | President/CEO | $7,800 |
| Hewlett-Packard | Carly Fiorna | Former CEO | $104,505,942 |
| Honda North America | Rick Schostek | EVP | $94,606,971 |
| HSBC Bank USA | Patrick Burke | President/CEO | $4,066,684,500 |
| Humana | Bruce Broussard | CEO | $5,040,780 |
| Huntington Ingalls Industries | Mike Petters | President/CEO | $352,694 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Jerry Flannery | Interim President and CEO | $221,094,000 |
| IBM | Ginni Rometty | Chairman/President/CEO | $10,081,214 |
| Intel | Brian Krzanich | CEO | $894,000 |
| International Paper | Mark Sutton | Chairman/CEO | $5,935,681 |
| J.C. Penny | Marvin Ellison | Chairman/CEO | $427,875 |
| JetBlue Airways Corporation | Robin Hayes | President/CEO | $987,950 |
| Johnson & Johnson | Alex Gorsky | CEO | $2,480,753,043 |
| JPMorgan Chase | Jamie Dimon | Chairman/CEO | $28,675,456,874 |
| Kaiser Foundation Health Plan | Bernard Tyson | Chairman/CEO | $1,101,125 |
| Kia Motors | Michael Sprague | COO and EVP | $160,509,180 |
| Koch Industries | David Koch | Executive Vice President | $4,266,610 |
| Las Vegas Sands | Sheldon Adelson | CEO | $15,960,000 |
| Lockheed Martin | Marillyn Hewson | Chairwoman/President | $56,715,738 |
| MasterCard | Ajay Banga | President/CEO | $13,000,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz USA | Dietmar Exler | CEO | $5,526 |
| Merck | Kenneth Frazier | Chairman/CEO | $957,716,045 |
| Mitsubishi International/Mitsubishi Corporation | Jason Stevens | President/CEO | $205,703,936 |
| Monsanto | Hugh Grant | CEO | $85,401,000 |
| Murray Energy Corporation | Robert Murray | CEO | $18,535,159 |
| Nissan Motor Company | Jose Munoz | Chief Performance Officer | $52,640 |
| Novartis AG | Joe Jimenez | CEO | $938,925,285 |
| Nucor | John Ferriola | Chairman/President/CEO | $573,984 |
| Oracle Corporation | Safra Catz | Co-CEO | $254,020,500 |
| Oxbow Carbon LLC | Bill Koch | Founder/CEO | $758,495 |
| PayPal | Peter Thiel | Co-Founder | $32,658,300 |
| PepsiCo | Indra Nooyi | Chairman/CEO | $3,725,029 |
| Salesforce | Marc Benioff | Founder/Chairman/CEO | $11,009 |
| Schaeffler | Klaus Rosenfeld | CEO | $45,825 |
| Schnitzer Steel Industries | Tamara Lundgren | CEO | $552,263 |
| Siemens AG, Munich | Joe Kaeser | CEO | $581,009 |
| SKANSKA | Richard Kennedy | President/CEO | $155,426 |
| Southwest Airlines | Gary Kelly | Chairman/CEO | $7,296,027 |
| SSAB | Chuck Schmitt | President | $132,504 |
| Target | Brian Cornell | Chairman/CEO | $3,407,921 |
| Tesla | Elon Musk | CEO | $126,170 |
| Timken Steel | Tim Timken | CEO | $688,612 |
| Toll Brothers | Bruce Toll | Co-founder | $748,000 |
| Toyota North America | James Lentz | CEO | $1,288,101,323 |
| Tractor Supply Company | Greg Sandfort | President/CEO | $2,287,786 |
| TransAlta | Dawn Farrell | President/CEO | $36,000 |
| TransCanada | Russ Girling | President/CEO | $183,100 |
| United Airlines | Oscar Muñoz | President/CEO | $17,427,928 |
| United Parcel Service | Myron Gray | President, US Operations | $27,424,573 |
| United Technologies | Greg Hayes | Chairman/President/CEO | $66,485,621 |
| UnitedHealth Group | Steve Hemsley | CEO | $5,025,000 |
| US Steel | Mario Longhi | CEO | $8,809,032 |
| Volkswagen | David Geanacopoulos | Senior EVP for Public Affairs and Public Pollicy | $19,225,193,500 |
| Volvo | Lex Kressemakers | CEO | $79,900,844 |
| Wal-Mart | Doug McMillon | President/CEO | $105,429,728 |
| Walgreens Boots Alliance | Stefano Pessina | CEO | $94,485,742 |
| Whirlpool | Jeff Fettig | Chairman/CEO | $93,905,968 |
| Wynn Resorts | Steve Wynn | Chairman/CEO | $52,036 |
| TOTAL | $89,794,188,249 |