Fine(d) Befellows: Worst of worst U.S. corporations rain donations on California politicians
With the help of Good Jobs First’s Violation Tracker, The Sacto Politico found that during the 2019-20 election cycle, “California’s 53-member delegation to the U.S. House accepted $14.6 million in campaign donations from 420 heavily fined parent corporations and subsidiaries.”
Not only do corporations with lengthy histories of workplace misconduct play active roles in helping candidates get elected, the fines and penalties they amass are little more than a cost of doing business — when they’re prosecuted at all.
As Jeff Burdick writes in The Sacto Politico:
The fines detailed in Violations Tracker cover a staggering spectrum of law-breaking across 100 different categories. To name just a few: price-fixing, wage theft, kickbacks and bribery, work- and public-safety violations, false claims submissions, mortgage abuses, environmental violations, toxic securities abuses, investor and consumer protection violations, employment discrimination, anti-money-laundering deficiencies, controlled substance violations, nuclear safety violations, and work visa violations.