The Los Angeles Times investigates Wells Fargo’s aggressive sales practices, revealing systematic pressures on employees to create unauthorized accounts. The investigation exposes a corporate culture that incentivized fraud, with employees opening fake accounts to meet impossible sales quotas. …
Wells Fargo BoardJohn StumpfScott Reckard (LA Times Reporter)corporate-fraudbanking-regulationregulatory-capturewells-fargo
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in Klayman v. Obama that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American telephone metadata likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a strongly-worded 68-page opinion, Judge Leon …
Richard LeonNSALarry Klaymannsa-surveillancefourth-amendmentjudicial-oversightconstitutional-lawprivacy-rights
The Department of Justice approved American Airlines’ merger with US Airways after initially suing to block the deal, completing a five-year consolidation wave that reduced major U.S. airlines from seven to four dominant carriers controlling three-quarters of the commercial air travel market. …
American AirlinesUS AirwaysDepartment of JusticeAntitrust Divisionantitrustconsolidationmergeroligopolyregulatory-capture+2 more
Following Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, major tech companies began publishing transparency reports disclosing limited information about government data requests, marking the first time companies could publicly acknowledge FISA court orders. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, …
Investigation revealed that Citigroup lobbyists drafted a House bill aimed at rolling back Dodd-Frank financial regulations, with 70 of the 85 lines in the final House legislation directly reflecting Citigroup’s recommendations. Two complete paragraphs were copied almost word-for-word from …
On November 9, 2013, Donald Trump brought the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow, held at Crocus City Hall owned by Aras Agalarov—a Russian billionaire known as “Putin’s Builder” with close Kremlin ties. During the event, Trump pursued meetings with Vladimir Putin (who sent a gift via …
Donald TrumpAras AgalarovEmin AgalarovVladimir PutinTrump Organizationtrumprussiaputinagalarovtrump-tower-moscow+3 more
The Guardian newspaper reported, citing documents obtained from Edward Snowden, that the National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaked NSA memo, dated October 2006, revealed that senior U.S. government officials …
Microsoft and Google filed federal lawsuits challenging government gag orders that prohibited them from disclosing details about Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests and National Security Letters (NSLs) they receive for customer data. The companies argued these blanket nondisclosure …
MicrosoftGoogleBrad SmithDepartment of JusticeNSAnsa-surveillancetransparencytech-resistancefisa-requestsfirst-amendment+1 more
Former South Dakota economic development secretary Richard Benda died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound near Lake Andes as state Attorney General Marty Jackley prepared felony theft charges against him. Jackley disclosed his office had drafted a criminal complaint and arrest warrant on October 8, …
Richard BendaJoop BollenMarty JackleyMike Roundscorruptioninstitutional-capturevisa-fraudregulatory-captureminimal-accountability
Declassified documents revealed that Yahoo secretly fought the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2007-2008, challenging the constitutionality of government demands for direct server access to user data. Yahoo argued the demands violated the …
YahooNSAFISA CourtForeign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Reviewnsa-surveillancefisa-courttech-resistanceprismyahoo+1 more
The Healthcare.gov launch on October 1, 2013 became one of the most expensive government IT failures in history, with costs ballooning from an initial $93.7 million CGI Federal contract to over $1.7 billion total. The site crashed within minutes of launch, with only 6 people successfully enrolling …
Governor Rick Snyder appoints Darnell Earley as emergency manager of Flint, Michigan, the third of four unelected managers who would control the predominantly Black city during its financial crisis. Earley takes control of a city of 100,000 residents where more than 40% of the population lives below …
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a scheduled state visit to Washington in response to revelations that the NSA had intercepted her personal phone calls, text messages, and emails, as well as conducting extensive surveillance of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras. The …
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (formerly Trump University LLC), and Michael Sexton on August 24, 2013, alleging “persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct.” Schneiderman …
Eric SchneidermanDonald TrumpMichael Sextontrump universityfraudconsumer protectionnew york attorney generaleric schneiderman+1 more
U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks that exposed war crimes and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sentence was the longest ever imposed on a whistleblower under the Espionage Act and sparked …
Chelsea ManningU.S. ArmyDepartment of JusticeObama Administrationwhistleblower-prosecutionespionage-actwikileaksmilitary-justicewar-crimes
Lavabit, an encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden, abruptly shut down rather than comply with federal government demands for the company’s SSL encryption keys, which would have compromised the privacy of all 400,000 users. Founder Ladar Levison announced the closure with a cryptic …
Ladar LevisonLavabitFBINSAEdward Snowdenencryptionprivacy-rightstech-resistancensa-surveillanceedward-snowden+1 more
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally purchased The Washington Post and its affiliated publications for $250 million, ending the Graham family’s four-generation stewardship of one of America’s most influential newspapers. The sale marked a watershed moment in billionaire media capture, …
Jeff BezosDonald GrahamWashington Post Companymedia-capturebillionaire-controlcorporate-powersurveillance-capitalism
General James Mattis joined the General Dynamics board of directors in August 2013, just five months after retiring from the Marine Corps in March 2013 as commander of U.S. Central Command. Mattis would earn over $900,000 in total compensation during his 2013-2017 board tenure, including $594,369 in …
James MattisGeneral DynamicsMarine Corpsrevolving-doordefense-contractorsgeneral-dynamicspentagonmilitary-industrial-complex
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein apologizing for his March 12, 2013 testimony to Congress, in which he denied that the NSA collected data on millions of Americans. In response to a direct question from Senator Ron …
James ClapperRon WydenDianne Feinsteinjames-clappercongressional-testimonynsa-surveillanceperjurygovernment-accountability
Within hours of the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina Republicans introduce and rapidly pass House Bill 589, one of the most comprehensive voter suppression laws in the nation. The law imposes strict voter ID requirements, eliminates …
North Carolina General AssemblyRepublican Partyvoter-suppressionnorth-carolinarepublican-partyvoting-rightsracial-discrimination
The Supreme Court strikes down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a 5-4 decision, effectively nullifying Section 5’s preclearance requirement that prevented jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination from changing voting laws without federal approval. Chief Justice …
Edward Snowden boarded an Aeroflot commercial flight from Hong Kong to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on June 23, 2013, accompanied by Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, just days after the U.S. filed espionage charges and requested his extradition. The Hong Kong government allowed Snowden to leave …
Edward SnowdenWikiLeaksSarah HarrisonHong Kong governmentState Departmentedward-snowdenasyluminternational-relationshong-kongrussia+1 more
On June 21, 2013, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake approved a deal reducing former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s prison sentence from 24 years to 14 years—a 10-year reduction that symbolized the erosion of corporate accountability in the decade following the Enron prosecutions. The sentence …
Jeffrey SkillingDepartment of JusticeSim Lakecorporate-fraudenroncriminal-prosecutionaccountability-erosionlegal-outcome
The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in FTC v. Actavis that the Federal Trade Commission could bring antitrust challenges against “pay-for-delay” agreements where brand-name drug manufacturers pay generic competitors to delay bringing cheaper alternatives to market. The decision reversed lower …
Supreme Court of the United StatesFederal Trade CommissionSolvay PharmaceuticalsActavisWatson Pharmaceuticals+1 morepharmaceutical-industrypatent-abuseregulatory-captureantitrustsupreme-court+2 more
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden on June 14, 2013, charging him with three felonies: unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized …
Edward SnowdenDepartment of JusticeEric Holderedward-snowdenespionage-actwhistleblowingcriminal-chargesnsa-surveillance
Edward Snowden publicly revealed himself as the source behind the explosive NSA surveillance leaks in a 12-minute video interview filmed at the Mira Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and published by The Guardian. The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and CIA technical assistant had flown to Hong Kong on …
Edward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldLaura Poitrasedward-snowdenwhistleblowingnsa-surveillanceprivacy-rightshong-kong
The Washington Post and The Guardian simultaneously published explosive revelations about PRISM, a classified program allowing the National Security Agency and FBI to tap directly into the central servers of nine major U.S. internet companies to extract audio, video, photographs, emails, documents, …
Edward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldBart GellmanNSAMicrosoft+4 morensa-surveillanceprismedward-snowdenmass-surveillancetech-surveillance+1 more
Glenn Greenwald published the first article in The Guardian based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealing a top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) order requiring Verizon to hand over all telephone metadata to the National Security Agency on an “ongoing, daily …
Edward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldNSAVerizonnsa-surveillancewhistleblowingedward-snowdenmass-surveillancetelecom-surveillance+1 more
Elliptic is founded in London by Adam Joyce, Tom Robinson, and James Smith, becoming the first company to develop cryptoasset anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance tools based on blockchain analytics. The company pioneers the application of blockchain forensics to track illicit …
On May 21, 2013, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held hearings examining multinational corporation tax avoidance, with Google as a primary focus. The investigation exposed that Google paid only a 2.4% tax rate on foreign profits—avoiding approximately $2 billion annually in taxes …
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on InvestigationsCarl LevinJohn McCainGoogleEric Schmidt+1 moregoogletax-avoidancesenateinvestigationcarl-levin+3 more
President Barack Obama nominates Tom Wheeler, a former top lobbyist for cable and wireless industries, to lead the Federal Communications Commission. Wheeler’s appointment exemplifies the revolving door between telecommunications regulators and industry, having served as CEO of the Cellular …
Tom WheelerBarack ObamaCellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA)National Cable Television Association (NCTA)Public Interest Groups+1 moreregulatory-capturefccrevolving-doortelecommunicationstom-wheeler+1 more
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation reveals that the CIA paid private contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen $81 million to design, implement, and assess the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation program. The psychologists had no interrogation experience, no background …
James MitchellBruce JessenCIAGeorge Tenettortureciaenhanced-interrogationprofiteeringwar-crimes
President Obama signed legislation that gutted key provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, just one year after the law was passed with great fanfare to combat congressional insider trading. The amendment eliminated the requirement for creating a searchable, sortable …
Barack Obamacongressional corruptioninsider tradingregulatory captureethics reform rollbackpolitical accountability+1 more
Edwin J. Feulner Jr. retired as president of the Heritage Foundation on April 3, 2013, after an extraordinary 36-year tenure that transformed Heritage from a small Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members and a $1 million budget into the most influential conservative think tank in Washington, …
Edwin FeulnerHeritage FoundationJim DeMintRichard ScaifeNewt Gingrich+3 moreheritage-foundationconservative-movementthink-tank-influenceinstitutional-capturedark-money+4 more
Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone program experienced massive cost escalation, with per-unit costs exploding from an initial $60.9 million in 2001 to $222.7 million per aircraft (including development costs) by 2013—a nearly four-fold increase that forced the Air Force to …
Northrop GrummanU.S. Air ForceDepartment of DefenseGovernment Accountability Office (GAO)military-industrial complexdefense contractorscost overrunssurveillance statedrone warfare+2 more
A federal court rules that the Texas Legislature’s 2011 redistricting plan for congressional districts discriminated against Latino voters in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. The decision finds that Texas deliberately carved up Latino communities and …
During a critical congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed the Department of Justice’s emerging doctrine of ’too big to jail’, acknowledging that prosecuting certain financial institutions could …
Eric HolderDepartment of JusticeJPMorgan ChaseBank of AmericaCitigroup+2 moreinstitutional-captureregulatory-capturecorruptionfinancial-crisisbank-prosecution+3 more
The Donald J. Trump Foundation illegally paid a $25,000 settlement related to Trump University litigation using tax-exempt charitable funds rather than Trump’s personal or business accounts. This payment represented another instance of Trump using his charitable foundation as a personal …
Donald TrumpTrump FoundationFlorida Attorney General Pam Bonditrump foundationcharity fraudself-dealingtrump universitytax violations
Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and false statements, admitting he misused approximately $750,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses over several years. Jackson, the son of civil …
Jesse Jackson Jr.Sandra Stevens Jacksoncongressional corruptioncampaign finance violationsdemocratic partyillinoiswire fraud+1 more
On January 29, 2013, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer announced his resignation as head of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, just one week after PBS Frontline aired “The Untouchables,” a damning documentary exposing how the Obama Justice Department had …
Lanny BreuerEric HolderDepartment of JusticeCovington & BurlingBarack Obama+2 morefinancial-crisisaccountability-crisisregulatory-capturerevolving-doortoo-big-to-fail+1 more
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was indicted on espionage charges for allegedly revealing details about Operation Merlin—a botched covert operation to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program—to New York Times journalist James Risen. The case became a flashpoint in the conflict between …
Jeffrey SterlingJames RisenCIAObama AdministrationDepartment of Justicewhistleblower-prosecutionespionage-actpress-freedomiranaccountability
The Federal Trade Commission closed its 19-month antitrust investigation of Google without bringing charges, despite internal staff recommendations for legal action. With 230 White House meetings in 2012-2013, Google demonstrated unprecedented political access, ultimately avoiding significant …
Federal Trade CommissionGoogle Inc.Larry PageEric SchmidtFTC Staff Attorneys+2 moreregulatory-capturetech-industryantitrustgoogleftc+2 more
On January 2, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) into law, resolving the ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis by making permanent 82% of President Bush’s tax cuts—approximately $2.8 trillion of the $3.4 trillion total Bush tax cut package estimated …
Barack ObamaJoe BidenMitch McConnellJohn BoehnerHarry Reid+3 moretax-policyobama-administrationfiscal-cliffbipartisan-complicitywealth-transfer+4 more
By 2013, the systematic exploitation of publishers through Google’s advertising technology monopoly had become evident. Publishers and advertisers discovered that Google was extracting 30-50% of advertising spending that flowed through its platforms—two to three times the take-rate of …
GoogleOnline publishersAdvertisersNews organizationsgooglead-techpublisher-exploitationmonopolizationvertical-integration+2 more
Governor Rick Snyder signs sweeping anti-union legislation making Michigan—the birthplace of the United Auto Workers and a union stronghold—the 24th right-to-work state. The Michigan House and Senate ram through bills HB 4003 (public sector) and HB 4054/SB 116 (private sector) during a lame duck …
Rick SnyderAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)Mackinac CenterMichigan GOPKoch brothers+3 morelabor-suppressionalecright-to-workmichiganunion-busting+3 more
On December 5, 2012, Elizabeth “Liz” Fowler announced her departure from the White House to join Johnson & Johnson as head of global health policy, completing her third spin through the healthcare industry revolving door. Fowler had served as the chief architect of the Affordable …
Elizabeth FowlerJohnson & JohnsonWellPointMax BaucusBarack Obama+1 morerevolving-doorregulatory-capturehealthcarelobbyingpharmaceutical-industry+3 more
BP reached a landmark $4.5 billion criminal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, pleading guilty to 14 criminal charges including 11 felony counts of misconduct or negligent homicide related to the deaths of the 11 workers in the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The settlement included $4 …
BP (British Petroleum)Department of JusticeSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC)Donald VidrineRobert Kaluza+3 morecriminal-settlementcorporate-prosecutionenvironmental-crimedeepwater-horizondoj-enforcement
In the 2012 congressional elections, North Carolina Democratic candidates receive over 50% of the statewide popular vote but win only 4 of the state’s 13 congressional seats—a stark demonstration of how the Republican-drawn maps from 2011 effectively nullify voter preferences. The results …
Democratic PartyRepublican PartyNorth Carolina General Assemblygerrymanderingelectoral-manipulationnorth-carolinaredmapvoter-suppression
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act after being indicted under the Espionage Act for publicly confirming that waterboarding was official U.S. government policy. In a profound miscarriage of justice, Kiriakou became the only person …
John KiriakouCIAObama AdministrationDepartment of Justicewhistleblower-prosecutiontortureespionage-actaccountabilitywar-crimes
On October 22, 2012, climate scientist Michael Mann filed a defamation lawsuit against Rand Simberg (a former scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute) and Mark Steyn (who wrote for National Review), after they published blog posts comparing him to Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State …
Michael MannRand SimbergMark SteynCompetitive Enterprise InstituteNational Reviewclimate-denialscientist-harassmentdefamationlegal-accountabilitymichael-mann