3 days after the earthquake hit the bank was busted it was bankrupt and it was lon's fault greed conspiracies and lies these companies are guilty of them all Martha Stewart was indicted on criminal charges relating to an insider trading Scandal that began more than a year ago welcome to watchmojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 corporate scandals he' been bankrupt he'd been sort of living out of the trunk of his car he was the kind of guy who's always talking up a story for this list we're taking a look at
Sensational controversies involving huge names from the business world all of which have had wide ranging consequences affecting companies and normal people alike what began as an industrial accident hundreds of miles away could have such an impact on us the crude Crisis began on the evening of April 20th 2010 we've based our choices on a combination of the money involved how high-profile the individuals and companies are the impact of the scandals on others and their overall size as well as whether any jail time was given out I work on the trading floor what's the M like
in there oh terrible death it's like a massive earthquake number 10 Bria gold mining Scandal surely one of the biggest frauds in the history of the world probably the biggest mining fraud of all time the mining arm of this Canadian company shot to prominence in 1995 when it claimed it had discovered a huge Gold store in Indonesia the resulting increase in stock price saw Brix minerals limited make over 6 billion in Canadian dollars but the bottom line was that it was all based on a lie perpetrated by geologist Michael dezman the fraud came to light
when duzman killed himself by jumping from a helicopter takes off over the jungle he's about 400 or 500 ft in the air over some of the deepest rainforest in all of Indonesia and the pilot looked into the back seat and dman was gone further analysis of the mining site revealed there to be insignificant amounts of gold which ultimately sent the company into bankruptcy although little money was recovered for those who were misled the Scandal did result in significant changes to Canadian legislation with respect to professional geology it would be somewhat more difficult to pull off
a similar type of scam but it it isn't impossible it's probably still could be done again number nine IBM and the Nazis during World War II IBM played an integral role in carrying out the Holocaust in Poland it's well known that many companies form questionable allegiances in the interest of business hi I'm Jared the subway guy and this is my story but aiding the Third Reich in the systematic identification and genocide of millions of people is a crime many would label unforgivable the punch cards by the millions had to be printed and they were printed
exclusively by IBM and the profits were recovered just after the war the German subsidiary of the company allegedly provided Punch Cards to quickly analyze the ethnic backgrounds of the populations of countries the Nazis occupied to determine who should be imprisoned or killed in a concentration camp the company has never openly admitted direct involvement with the Nazi regime but this remains a black mark on one of the biggest corporations in the United States the fact that they have used equipment you know that is a fact but how they got how much cooperation they got and any
kind of collusion trying to connect dots that are not connected I think that's the part that is discredited number eight the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that massive oil slick now covering some 600 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and it could start reaching the United States Coast within hours the major oil company known as BP may already have had a famously poor environmental record but this disaster was the wor worst in the history of the petroleum industry 11 people were killed in the initial explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010 but humans and animals continue to feel the detrimental effects of 210 million US gallons of oil flowing into the sea if this thing would have been a mistake I could live with that but this wasn't a mistake it was just pure greed the company was hit with charges that amounted to $8.7 billion in fines for their gross negligence and ful conduct however whether this amount of money is capable of reversing the environmental damage remains to be seen our accidental drilling spill again in the Gulf is a tragedy that should have never happened
and to all those affected I want to say we are deeply sorry we're sorry we're sorry number seven the Leman Brothers bankruptcy stocks all around the world are tanking because of the crisis on Wall Street the 2008 financial crisis was a tough time for reckless investment Banks as Bear Sterns found out but the Leman Brothers collapse was the economic events greatest victim hi sorry do you work foran yeah I did but and how do you feel about all this happening very upset the financial services firms leveraging of borrowed money caused the biggest bankruptcy in US
history in 2008 and the company fizzled out of existance in a rapid decline that enhanced the economic Devastation of the ongoing crisis so you've been able to pocket close to half a million dollars and my question to you is a lot of people ask is that fair for the CEO of a company that's now bankrupt to have made that kind of money it's just unimaginable to so many people news emerged that Executives increased their pay just before the bankruptcy and that accounts had been altered to hide the bank's poor financial position this case stands as
the perfect example of the culture of access causing worldwide suffering for billions of people hey this report comes just short of suggesting this is by no means an accident but instead one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated against a group of people this crime an accounting fraud perpetrated by Bank CEOs against the American taxpayer and enabled by the US government number six Tao International theft there are murderers out there who have spent less time in prison than Dennis Kowski has fed in absolutely true I met him Dennis Kowski and Mark H Schwartz were Infamous for
their extravagant Lifestyles that were built through the success of the security systems company known as Tao International Limited and in 2002 they were accused of stealing over $150 million from the business the then CEO and then CFO contended that the board had authorized these payments as bonuses the following trial was something of a sham but eventually both men were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison during a retrial due to the Duo's falsification of Records Tao was forced to pay almost $3 billion to defrauded and likely very angry investors I earn 90 cents a
day now so on a good week I make about 450 a week number five the B pal disaster the death toll of this 1984 disaster in India is claimed to be more than 16,000 but it's unknown how many people actually suffered as a result of the gas leak at at the Union Carbide Indian limited pesticide plant former Union Carbide Corporation CEO Warren Anderson was charged with manslaughter by Bal authorities but never had to answer for the disaster as the US refused to extradite him in 1989 $470 million was paid by UCC to settle litigation but
a lawsuit seeking further compensation for crimes against humanity was dismissed in 2012 Anderson died 2 years later with the Indian public still feeling as though Justice had not been served there was a number of safeguards that that could have been and should have been in place um but but they were not number four the FIFA corruption case allegations of of um systematic corruption and bribery over the last two decades over two decades are relating to all of the major or many of the major uh football tournaments the governing body for the most popular sport in
the world has been dogged by constant accusations of corruption but in 2015 these suspicions were confirmed 18 individuals were indicted on charges including money laundering and wire fraud I don't know what I'm more surprised by that FIFA officials were actually arrested or that America was behind it it took the country that cares the least about football to bring down the people who have been ruining it there is considerable evidence that bribery of top officials has been key in deciding where major tournaments like the World Cup are held the tool 2010 FIFA World Cup will be
organized in South Africa as of the end of 2015 the whole organization was still in turmoil as further accusations of corruption emerged regarding suspended president Seth bladder here we go SE number three Worldcom accounting fraud Worldcom Incorporated Executives Scott D Sullivan and David F Meyers were charged with seven counts of Securities fraud this telecommunication Corporation held the record for biggest bankruptcy in 2002 before the Leman Brothers collapse took its unwanted title 6 years later throughout the early 2000s the company was utilizing a complex scheme of adjusting its books to hide the considerable losses although I
would like more than you know to answer the questions that you and your colleagues have about WorldCom I've been instructed by my Council not to testify based on my fifth amendment constitutional rights by 2003 it's thought that their total assets had been fraudulently inflated by around 11 billion in 2005 former CEO Bernard eers was convicted of various types of fraud that would keep him behind bars for 25 years a sentence many would say was befitting someone who deceived so many hopefully um it will deter people from um hurting investors former employees like myself um who
basically have little or no uh recourse except for a class action lawsuit number two the Volkswagen emissions Scandal and in my German words we have totally screwed up in this case of fraud it was discovered that one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world was using software to falsify emission test results with an estimated 11 million of its Vehicles being affected while the findings by the international Council on clean Transportation may end up costing the company more than1 18 bli million dollar in fines what should also be considered is the fact that Volkswagen's reputation
in the eyes of the consumer could be irreparably damaged as well as substantial Financial consequences the company could be responsible for deaths due to fumes that they had fraudulently stopped from appearing in tests I I don't think the company itself will fail but uh the company will suffer a lot as a result of what's happened before we reveal our top pick let's take a look at had some dishonorable mentions Barkley's are not alone in this the FSA is continuing to investigate the conduct of a number of other banks in relation to Li we talked about
apologies and I told you that I owe a lot of people apologies Peter ler has to investigate over a billion euros in bribes that were paid out before he came to zans number one the Enron Scandal the Fatal flaw at Enron was Pride arrogance intolerance how money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in the space of a month or so this energy giant went from being one of the biggest companies in the world to bankrupt our position as to whether Arthur Anderson committed a crime has not changed they did not not a single person
there did what set the Scandal apart from the relatively common instances of accounting fraud were the failures of accounting firm Arthur Anderson LLP which neglected to report enron's crimes and led to the firm's own dissolution the sheer scale of enron's fraudulent activity is difficult to comprehend as it allowed the business to pretend it was running at $100 billion in revenues through the use of loopholes poor financial reporting and more to conceal its massive debt many critics thought that for an energy company to be so reckless was particularly important and that those involved deserved their harsh
sentences K L's resignation yesterday only escalates the situation hope is that we will not stop at resignations without dealing with some form of restitution to those that have been hurt do you agree with our list what do you think is the biggest corporate Scandal four more scandalist top 10s published every day be sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com we have changed our name from Beyond petroleum to Dependable petroleum DP we no longer the Earth we DP it [Music]
