Corporate-Accountability

California Judicial Council Establishes First Comprehensive AI Transparency Regulations

| Importance: 9/10

On July 18, 2025, the California Judicial Council approved Rule 10.430, establishing the nation’s first comprehensive AI transparency and accountability regulations. The rules mandate human oversight, bias prevention, and mandatory disclosure of AI-generated documents in judicial operations. …

California Judicial Council US Federal Judicial Conference xAI AI Rights Advocacy Groups legal-precedent ai-transparency judicial-technology corporate-accountability tech-regulation
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Trump signs order pausing enforcement of foreign bribery ban

| Importance: 8/10

In an unprecedented move, Trump signed an executive order suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which has banned US firms from bribing foreign officials since 1977. The order mandates a 180-day review of existing investigations and establishes new guidelines that could …

Donald Trump Trump Administration William Barr Department of Justice corruption foreign-influence executive-order anti-corruption corporate-accountability
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Grok AI Implements Enhanced Safety Protocols After Regulatory Pressure

| Importance: 7/10

Following months of scrutiny, xAI announces updates to Grok AI’s content moderation and bias mitigation strategies. Key changes include stopping election misinformation generation, blocking inappropriate image generation, and committing to more transparent safety frameworks. These updates come …

Elon Musk xAI AI Ethics Review Board U.S. AI Safety Institute ai-safety tech-ethics corporate-accountability artificial-intelligence-regulation government-ai-policy
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Oracle Agrees to $115 Million Settlement Over Mass Surveillance Data Brokerage

| Importance: 8/10

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg granted preliminary approval on August 9, 2024, to a class action settlement requiring Oracle Corporation to pay $115 million and implement changes to its data brokerage practices. The settlement resolves the lawsuit filed in August 2022 alleging that Oracle …

Oracle Judge Richard Seeborg Irish Council for Civil Liberties surveillance privacy data-brokers oracle settlements +1 more
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xAI Implements Comprehensive AI Safety Protocols in Response to Investigations

| Importance: 8/10

Following extensive criticism from AI safety researchers, xAI announces partial updates to Grok AI’s safety mechanisms in July 2024. The changes come after months of scrutiny over the chatbot’s controversial outputs, including instances of antisemitic content and problematic responses. …

Elon Musk xAI Samuel Marks Boaz Barak Scott Wiener +1 more ai-safety corporate-accountability tech-regulation ai-ethics content-moderation +1 more
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Musk's xAI Grok Faces Mounting Safety Scrutiny, Secures $200M Pentagon Contract

| Importance: 9/10

Elon Musk’s xAI faced intense scrutiny after releasing Grok AI without comprehensive safety documentation, including generating antisemitic content and pulling opinions directly from Musk’s social media posts. Despite these controversies, xAI secured a $200 million Pentagon contract in …

Elon Musk xAI AI Safety Researchers GSA AI Safety Team Department of Defense +1 more ai-safety tech-communication corporate-accountability election-technology government-ai-contracts +1 more
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Amazon Refuses to Negotiate with JFK8 Union After NLRB Certification - Stalls Contract for Over a Year

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon Refuses to Negotiate with JFK8 Union After NLRB Certification - Stalls Contract for Over a Year

On January 11, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board officially certified the Amazon Labor Union’s historic April 2022 election victory at the Staten Island JFK8 facility, formally …

Amazon Amazon Labor Union Christian Smalls National Labor Relations Board Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Labor Rights Corporate Accountability +1 more
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Amazon Injury Rate Double Warehouse Industry Average - 6.8 Per 100 Workers

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon Injury Rate Double Warehouse Industry Average - 6.8 Per 100 Workers

On April 12, 2022, the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC)—a coalition of four major labor unions—released a comprehensive report analyzing Amazon’s worker injury rates using federal OSHA data. The report revealed that …

Amazon Strategic Organizing Center Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Amazon Labor Rights Worker Safety
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Amazon JFK8 Workers Vote to Form Company's First U.S. Union in Historic Victory

| Importance: 10/10

Amazon JFK8 Workers Vote to Form Company’s First U.S. Union in Historic Victory

On April 1, 2022, workers at Amazon’s massive JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island voted 2,654 to 2,131 to form the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), creating the first unionized Amazon facility in the United …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Christian Smalls Amazon Labor Union Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Labor Rights Corporate Accountability
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Six Amazon Workers Killed in Edwardsville Warehouse Tornado Collapse

| Importance: 10/10

Six Amazon Workers Killed in Edwardsville Warehouse Tornado Collapse

On December 10, 2021, an EF-3 tornado struck Amazon’s DLI4 delivery facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, causing catastrophic structural damage that killed six workers: Deandre S. Morrow (28), Kevin D. Dickey (62), Clayton …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Amazon Worker Death Labor Rights
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Federal Jury Finds CVS, Walgreens, Walmart Liable for Fueling Ohio Opioid Crisis

| Importance: 8/10

On November 23, 2021, a federal jury in Cleveland found CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart liable for contributing to the opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties in Ohio. After a six-week trial and five and a half days of deliberation, jurors concluded that the pharmacy chains contributed to a public …

CVS Walgreens Walmart Lake County Ohio Trumbull County Ohio opioid-crisis pharmacy-liability corporate-accountability public-nuisance retail-pharmacies
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NLRB Hearing Officer Rules Amazon Illegally Interfered in Bessemer Election, Recommends New Vote

| Importance: 9/10

NLRB Hearing Officer Rules Amazon Illegally Interfered in Bessemer Election, Recommends New Vote

On August 2, 2021, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing officer issued a recommendation finding that Amazon had illegally interfered in the April 2021 union election at its Bessemer, Alabama …

National Labor Relations Board Amazon Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Labor Rights Corporate Accountability +1 more
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Amazon Defeats Bessemer Union Vote 1,798 to 738 After Intensive Anti-Union Campaign

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon Defeats Bessemer Union Vote 1,798 to 738 After Intensive Anti-Union Campaign

On April 9, 2021, vote counting concluded in the historic union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse (BHM1), with workers decisively rejecting unionization by a margin of 1,798 votes against to 738 …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Labor Rights Corporate Accountability
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Wells Fargo Scandal Scorecard: 5,300 Workers Fired, Zero Execs Prosecuted

| Importance: 10/10

After nearly a decade of systematic fraud, multiple investigations, Congressional hearings, and billions in penalties, the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal concludes with a stark scorecard that defines two-tiered justice in American finance: 3.5 million fraudulent accounts affecting millions of …

Wells Fargo John Stumpf Carrie Tolstedt Department of Justice corporate-fraud wells-fargo two-tiered-justice corporate-accountability systemic-analysis
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Amazon Discloses 19,816 Workers Infected with COVID-19 After Months of Concealment

| Importance: 10/10

Amazon Discloses 19,816 Workers Infected with COVID-19 After Months of Concealment

On October 1, 2020, after months of resisting transparency demands from workers, labor groups, politicians, and regulators, Amazon disclosed that at least 19,816 of its frontline employees had tested positive or been …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Worker Exploitation COVID-19 Corporate Accountability Amazon Public Health
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Whole Foods Heat Map Tracks Stores at Risk of Unionization Using Diversity and Demographics

| Importance: 8/10

Whole Foods Heat Map Tracks Stores at Risk of Unionization Using Diversity and Demographics

On April 20, 2020, Business Insider revealed that Amazon-owned Whole Foods had created an interactive “heat map” system that tracked and scored all 510 of its stores based on their risk of …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Whole Foods Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Surveillance Data Analytics +1 more
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Amazon Fires Christian Smalls for Organizing COVID Safety Protest

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon Fires Christian Smalls for Organizing COVID Safety Protest

On March 30, 2020, Amazon fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls hours after he organized a walkout at the Staten Island JFK8 facility to protest inadequate COVID-19 safety measures. The termination occurred during the early, …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Christian Smalls David Zapolsky Worker Exploitation Union Organizing Amazon COVID-19 Corporate Accountability +1 more
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Amazon Warehouse Worker Billy Foister Dies on Warehouse Floor After Heart Attack

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon Warehouse Worker Billy Foister Dies on Warehouse Floor After Heart Attack

On September 2, 2019, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, suffered a fatal heart attack at the Amazon fulfillment center in Etna, Ohio. According to his brother and coworkers, Foister lay on the …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Billy Foister Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Amazon Worker Death Labor Rights
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Facebook Admits Platform Used to "Incite Offline Violence" in Myanmar Genocide, Implements No Systemic Changes

| Importance: 10/10

Facebook publicly admits that its platform was used to “foment division and incite offline violence” in Myanmar’s genocide against Rohingya Muslims, acknowledging the UN’s determination that Facebook played a “determining role” in violence that killed thousands …

Facebook Mark Zuckerberg United Nations Rohingya Muslims Myanmar Military facebook genocide myanmar rohingya corporate-accountability +3 more
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Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to $15 But Eliminates Bonuses and Stock Options

| Importance: 8/10

Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to $15 But Eliminates Bonuses and Stock Options

On October 2, 2018, one month after Bernie Sanders introduced the “Stop BEZOS Act,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company would raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour for all U.S. employees, effective …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Amazon Labor Rights
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Amazon's Anti-Union Training Video Leaked - Exposes Systematic Union Suppression Program

| Importance: 8/10

Amazon’s Anti-Union Training Video Leaked - Exposes Systematic Union Suppression Program

On September 26, 2018, Gizmodo published a leaked 45-minute union-busting training video that Amazon had distributed to Whole Foods team leaders, exposing the company’s systematic program to identify …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Whole Foods Union Organizing Worker Exploitation Amazon Corporate Accountability Surveillance
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Bernie Sanders Introduces "Stop BEZOS Act" Targeting Amazon Wages

| Importance: 8/10

Bernie Sanders Introduces “Stop BEZOS Act” Targeting Amazon Wages

On September 5, 2018, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act”—the “Stop BEZOS Act”—legislation designed to force large corporations like Amazon …

Bernie Sanders Jeff Bezos Amazon Ro Khanna Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Amazon Political Response Labor Rights
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Tech Workers Coalition: Establishing Digital Resistance Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

In 2018, the Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) dramatically expanded its global presence, establishing 21 international chapters to create a systematic framework for technological resistance. This expansion built upon key organizing efforts from previous years, including the influential Google Walkouts …

Tech Workers Coalition Silicon Valley Employees Digital Rights Advocates Rachel Melendes Matt Schaefer +1 more digital-resistance tech-ethics employee-organizing labor-movement tech-worker-solidarity +1 more
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Federal Reserve Imposes Unprecedented Asset Cap on Wells Fargo

| Importance: 9/10

The Federal Reserve Board imposes an unprecedented enforcement action against Wells Fargo, restricting the bank from growing beyond its total asset size as of December 31, 2017—approximately $1.95 trillion. The asset cap represents the most severe punishment the Fed has imposed on a major bank in …

Federal Reserve Janet Yellen Wells Fargo Board banking-regulation wells-fargo federal-reserve corporate-accountability
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Stumpf Resigns as CEO, Retains Over $130 Million in Compensation

| Importance: 8/10

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf resigns effective immediately, ending his 34-year career at the bank amid the fake accounts scandal. Despite calls from Senator Elizabeth Warren and others for him to forfeit his compensation and face criminal charges, Stumpf departs with approximately $130-137 million in …

John Stumpf Wells Fargo Board Timothy Sloan corporate-fraud wells-fargo executive-compensation corporate-accountability
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GM Plant Stops Using Flint Water After It Corrodes Car Parts—But Residents Must Keep Drinking It

| Importance: 9/10

General Motors’ engine plant in Flint stops using city water after discovering it is corroding engine parts, switching to Lake Huron water from a neighboring township at an anticipated cost to the city of $400,000. GM reports that the super-high levels of chloride in Flint River water are …

General Motors Darnell Earley Flint City Government flint-water-crisis environmental-racism corporate-accountability General-Motors
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Wells Fargo Fires 5,300 Low-Level Workers While Executives Keep Jobs

| Importance: 8/10

Wells Fargo begins systematically firing approximately 5,300 low-level employees between 2011 and 2016 for creating unauthorized customer accounts, while the senior executives who designed the sales incentive systems and set impossible quotas face no disciplinary action. The firings demonstrate a …

Wells Fargo John Stumpf Carrie Tolstedt corporate-fraud wells-fargo economic-inequality corporate-accountability
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Amazon Implements Automated Worker Surveillance and Tracking System

| Importance: 8/10

Amazon Implements Automated Worker Surveillance and Tracking System

Beginning around 2012, Amazon deployed comprehensive automated surveillance systems in its warehouses that tracked worker productivity per second through handheld scanners, creating what labor advocates described as algorithmic …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Worker Exploitation Surveillance Corporate Accountability Technology Amazon
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Amazon Lehigh Valley Warehouse Heat Exhaustion Scandal Exposed

| Importance: 8/10

Amazon Lehigh Valley Warehouse Heat Exhaustion Scandal Exposed

On September 18, 2011, The Morning Call newspaper published a landmark investigation exposing brutal working conditions at Amazon’s warehouse in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley). The investigation revealed that during …

Jeff Bezos Amazon Worker Exploitation Corporate Accountability Labor Rights Amazon
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BP Agrees to $20 Billion Gulf Coast Claims Fund Amid Deepwater Horizon Fallout

| Importance: 8/10

BP agreed to establish a $20 billion independent claims fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, administered by Kenneth Feinberg. By July 2011, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility had paid $3.7 billion to 198,475 claimants. The fund, while unprecedented in its scale, faced …

BP (British Petroleum) Barack Obama Tony Hayward Kenneth Feinberg Gulf Coast Claims Facility +3 more compensation-fund corporate-accountability environmental-justice bp-deepwater-horizon obama-administration +2 more
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BP Agrees to $20 Billion Gulf Coast Claims Fund Amid Deepwater Horizon Fallout

| Importance: 8/10

Under intense pressure from the Obama administration and Congress, BP agreed to establish a $20 billion independent claims fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The fund, administered by Kenneth Feinberg, represented an unprecedented corporate commitment to environmental …

BP (British Petroleum) Barack Obama Tony Hayward Kenneth Feinberg Gulf Coast Claims Facility +2 more compensation-fund corporate-accountability environmental-justice bp-deepwater-horizon obama-administration
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Jeffrey Skilling Sentenced to 24 Years for Enron Fraud

| Importance: 10/10

On October 23, 2006, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years and four months in federal prison for his role in the Enron fraud, representing one of the harshest sentences ever imposed on a corporate executive. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake also ordered Skilling to forfeit …

Jeffrey Skilling Department of Justice Sim Lake corporate-fraud enron criminal-prosecution securities-fraud corporate-accountability
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Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling Convicted of Enron Fraud and Conspiracy

| Importance: 10/10

On May 25, 2006, a federal jury convicted Enron founder Kenneth Lay on all six counts of fraud and conspiracy, and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on 19 of 28 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. The verdicts marked a watershed moment in corporate accountability, holding top …

Kenneth Lay Jeffrey Skilling Department of Justice corporate-fraud enron criminal-prosecution securities-fraud corporate-accountability
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WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

| Importance: 10/10

On July 13, 2005, former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating the largest corporate accounting fraud in American history. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan, represented one of the harshest penalties ever …

Bernard Ebbers Department of Justice corporate-fraud worldcom criminal-prosecution securities-fraud corporate-accountability
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Sarbanes-Oxley Act Signed Into Law as Brief Reform Moment

| Importance: 10/10

On July 30, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law, calling it “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” The legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support—423 to 3 in the House and 99 …

George W. Bush Paul Sarbanes Michael Oxley corporate-fraud legislation corporate-accountability financial-regulation reform
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Arthur Andersen Convicted, Destroying 85,000 Jobs Worldwide

| Importance: 10/10

On June 15, 2002, a federal jury convicted Arthur Andersen LLP of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of Enron-related documents. The verdict effectively destroyed one of the world’s most prestigious accounting firms, eliminating 85,000 jobs globally and marking the last time a …

Arthur Andersen Department of Justice corporate-fraud enron obstruction-of-justice arthur-andersen corporate-accountability
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