New research from Diggity Marketing reveals which companies have been fined the most since 2000, as well as the most commonly fined industries and offenses leading to fines.
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Top 10 Most Fined Companies
| Rank | Company | Based In | Industry | Total Amount Fined | Total Fines |
| 1 | Bank of America | United States | Financial Services | $82,737,699,939 | 214 |
| 2 | JPMorgan Chase | United States | Financial Services | $35,744,240,670 | 158 |
| 3 | BP | United Kingdom | Oil & Gas | $29,155,941,533 | 236 |
| 4 | Citigroup | United States | Financial Services | $25,450,155,764 | 122 |
| 5 | Volkswagen | Germany | Motor Vehicles | $23,764,268,628 | 51 |
| 6 | Wells Fargo | United States | Financial Services | $21,340,036,745 | 181 |
| 7 | Deutsche Bank | Germany | Financial Services | $18,156,533,878 | 59 |
| 8 | UBS | Switzerland | Financial Services | $16,792,800,910 | 83 |
| 9 | Goldman Sachs | United States | Financial Services | $16,365,468,987 | 44 |
The Bank of America takes the top spot, having to pay out an incredible $82.7 billion across 214 individual fines over the years, many of which have come about as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and relate to things such as mortgages and financial disclosures.
The biggest single fine that they’ve faced added up to $16.65 billion as part of a settlement to the Department of Justice over the sale of risky, mortgage-backed securities prior to the recession, the largest settlement between a single company and the federal government of all time.
Top 5 Most Fined Industries
| Rank | Industry | Total Amount Fined | Total Fines |
| 1 | Financial Services | $330,904,834,105 | 6,093 |
| 2 | Pharmaceuticals | $50,318,398,621 | 890 |
| 3 | Oil & Gas | $45,544,460,694 | 5,961 |
| 4 | Motor Vehicles | $31,099,611,959 | 744 |
| 5 | Utilities & Power Generation | $22,447,575,068 | 1,911 |
Businesses in the financial sector were by far the most likely to find themselves in trouble, paying a total of over $330 billion over the last 20 years, which is more than all over industries combined! The likes of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are amongst the biggest fines in this sector, as well as other major banks and financial institutions such as Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Goldman Sachs.
Top 5 Most Fined Offenses
| Rank | Offence | Total Amount Fined | Total Fines |
| 1 | Toxic Securities Abuses | $100,892,181,897 | 107 |
| 2 | Environmental Violation | $96,252,866,210 | 43,478 |
| 3 | Investor Protection Violation | $77,810,804,234 | 5,487 |
| 4 | Mortgage Abuses | $56,676,183,058 | 158 |
| 5 | False Claims Act and Related | $47,097,771,445 | 2,925 |
'Toxic assets' is a term that was coined during the financial crash and refers to investments that are difficult or impossible to sell due to a collapse in demand for them. Vast amounts of these toxic assets were sold in the build-up to the crisis, with some of the biggest culprits being the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
You can see the full research here.
