“Unmasking Corporate Greed: Discover the 14 Companies That Took Exploitation to New Heights!”
We’ll address the obvious elephant in the room: not every successful company is inherently greedy, and in some cases, their transgressions were products of their time. But the stories below show how unchecked ambition can have far-reaching consequences. Here are 14 of the greediest companies in history and the scandals that cemented their place on this list.
1. Standard Oil
Standard Oil, founded by John D. Rockefeller in the late 19th century, is often considered the poster child of corporate greed. By the early 1900s, it controlled 91% of oil production and 85% of final sales in the U.S., creating one of the most infamous monopolies in history.
The company crushed competition by undercutting prices and buying out smaller players. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil into smaller companies, but by then, Rockefeller was already the richest man in modern history.
2. Enron Corporation
The Enron scandal of the early 2000s is a textbook example of corporate greed. Enron used accounting loopholes and outright fraud to inflate its earnings and hide debt, misleading investors and employees alike.
When the scandal broke in 2001, it wiped out $74 billion in shareholder value and cost thousands of employees their retirement savings. Its collapse remains one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history.
3. Wells Fargo
In 2016, Wells Fargo was caught opening millions of fake bank accounts without customer consent to meet aggressive sales targets. Employees were pressured to meet unrealistic quotas, leading to widespread fraud.
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