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It's no secret that large corporations often engage in heinous acts—poisoning entire communities, supporting torture, or funneling money into criminal networks like Mexican drug cartels. Yet, they often escape accountability, leveraging their wealth and the essential services they provide to evade consequences.
But is this really the case? If you dive into the dark history of corporate misconduct, you'll find countless examples of companies rewarded despite their incompetence. Companies that failed spectacularly yet emerged unscathed. These are the stories of those companies.
10 Thomas Cook Causes the Death of Two Children, Walks Away With a Huge Payout
In 2006, Neil Shepard and his girlfriend, along with Neil's children Bobby and Christi, went on vacation to Corfu. They stayed at a hotel managed by the massive Thomas Cook chain, a company known for its reliability. However, the hotel was poorly maintained. On the third night of their stay, a carbon monoxide leak tragically claimed the lives of Bobby and Christi.
During the inquest that took place nine years later, the jury delivered a verdict of 'unlawful killing' and found that Thomas Cook had failed in its duty of care. The coroner stated the company should 'hang its head in shame.' Little did he know how accurate his words were. It was later uncovered that Thomas Cook had received more compensation for the accident than the grieving parents of the children.
Following the deaths of Bobby and Christi, Thomas Cook reportedly secured a £ million payout to cover legal expenses, a sum 10 times larger than what Neil Shepard and his ex-wife were awarded. Despite this, the company refused to apologize at the inquest, claiming they had sent a separate letter of apology to the children's parents. However, Neil Shepard stated that such a letter had never been received.
Adding insult to injury, Thomas Cook denied any responsibility for the tragedy and refused to offer any of the £ million payout to the children's parents. Instead, they asserted that they were fully within their rights to seek compensation, offering a stark insight into how little value they placed on the lives of children.
9 Aggregate Industries Cheats Massachusetts, Still Lands a Profitable Contract
In 1991, Boston embarked on a $22 billion mega-project known as the 'Big Dig,' a massive endeavor aimed at rerouting Interstate 93 beneath the city. It became one of the most ambitious construction projects in Massachusetts history, and it also made many companies quite a bit of money—none more so than Aggregate Industries. However, in 2006, it was revealed that Aggregate had deliberately supplied inferior concrete and forged documents to defraud the government. As a result, six individuals were arrested, and Aggregate was banned from working in Massachusetts again.
But wait, our bad. We meant to say that Aggregate immediately scooped up the next major government contract, worth a whopping $8.9 million. As part of the Obama administration’s stimulus program, Massachusetts’s Highway Division awarded multimillion-dollar contracts to improve the state's roads. Aggregate Industries was one of the primary beneficiaries, landing two highly lucrative contracts less than two years after its fraudulent actions were exposed.
Sadly, Aggregate wasn't the only company to take advantage of the situation. According to the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, over half of the companies that received funding under the scheme had a history of wrongdoing.
8 G4S Mishandles a Government Contract, Then Immediately Lands Another
The London 2012 Olympics are widely considered a fantastic event and a major success for the British capital. However, they almost turned into a complete disaster, all thanks to one company: G4S.
G4S, a private security company, was awarded a multimillion-pound contract to supply 13,000 staff to secure the London Olympics. But just two weeks before the games began, the company admitted it couldn’t handle the job. They backed out, and the British army was called in last minute, leading to more troops being deployed in London than in Afghanistan. Despite this monumental failure, G4S had the audacity to charge the British taxpayer £31 million for their 'management' of the contract.
Under normal circumstances, this should have marked the end of G4S’s dealings with the UK government. However, the Department of Work and Pensions wasted no time in offering them a lucrative new contract to manage its call centers.
At this point, it’s worth noting that G4S was already under criminal investigation in the UK for charging the government £109 million to electronically tag prisoners who were either already released or deceased. So, this is a company that continually cheats and nearly sabotages a major event, yet Westminster keeps hiring them again and again.
7 Boeing Continually Fails the Government, and Continually Gets Rehired
We’ve all heard the saying, 'insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome.' If that’s true, then the US government must be the most insane entity in existence. Over the past several decades, they have repeatedly awarded lucrative contracts to Boeing, despite the company failing them nearly every time.
In 1989, Boeing was found to have accepted stolen, top-secret documents from the Pentagon. Although the company was fined $5.2 million, it didn’t prevent them from securing defense contracts. Just nine years later, they were fined again, this time for overcharging the Pentagon by millions of dollars.
And that’s just the beginning. In 1997, Boeing knowingly sold defective helicopters to the US Army. Six years later, one of their employees used the promise of a job to bribe a Pentagon official into approving overpriced contracts. Three years after that, they once again knowingly sold faulty equipment—this time, an entire fleet of poorly repaired aircraft.
If you look further, you’ll uncover many more instances of Boeing treating the federal government like a clueless entity with deep pockets. Despite this, they keep getting rehired. In 2008, they landed a contract to provide anti-missile decoy systems. In 2010, they were fined $4 million for overcharging on these systems. It almost seems like there's a recurring pattern here.
6. America’s Prison Giant Struggles at Running Prisons
The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the largest private prison operators in the United States, has been in the business since 1983. Every year, they secure new contracts and are currently responsible for 67 facilities housing around 100,000 inmates. This is curious, considering CCA is notoriously terrible at running prisons.
Over the years, they’ve repeatedly shown they are not the ideal choice for housing violent criminals. In 1989, they cut so many corners while constructing a prison in Florida that four inmates managed to escape within the first year. In 1999, they accidentally released a dozen criminals early. In 1998, a careless guard allowed someone to sneak in bolt cutters, leading to four inmates escaping in broad daylight.
This alone should disqualify them from running prisons, but CCA also struggles with violent riots. A mix of overcrowding, poorly maintained facilities, and undertrained staff has turned violent uprisings into a common occurrence at CCA-run prisons. These riots have led to the deaths of both staff and inmates, especially since CCA guards are known to flee at the first sign of trouble. To top it off, some of their facilities have been accused of orchestrating gladiator-style battles between inmates. Yet the contracts and taxpayer funds keep flowing.
5. Atos Costs The UK Millions
In 2008, the UK government took a hard stance on welfare claimants, concerned that some disability benefit recipients might be faking their conditions. They hired the French IT company Atos to design a new test aimed at distinguishing the malingerers from the genuinely disabled. Unfortunately, the test was so flawed that it ended up stripping welfare from terminally ill cancer patients. Undeterred by the failure, the government extended Atos’s contract and rolled the scheme out nationwide. It was a total disaster.
The test was so unjust that it declared people days away from death as “fit for work.” Many permanently disabled individuals lost their benefits, leading to hundreds of thousands appealing the decisions at tribunals. This caused the UK court system to become overwhelmed. New judges were hired, and courts were even opened on Saturdays. Forty percent of claimants had their disability benefits reinstated. By 2012, Atos’s faulty tests were estimated to cost the Ministry of Justice £60 million annually. Around 1,300 people ruled fit to work by the company died within weeks. It was later revealed that Atos had lied to secure its contract.
In 2015, the UK government finally ended their contract with Atos. By then, the company had been earning £700 million a year for failing to do their job properly. Did they reimburse any of that money? What do you think?
4. Serco Abuses Human Rights, Gets Rehired By Australia
Earlier, we shared the troubling details of Australia’s offshore refugee detention centers. Here’s the company that oversees some of those facilities: Serco, an outsourcing giant responsible for managing 12 centers. Despite their dismal performance and their frequent financial troubles, Serco was awarded a new contract by the Australian government, valued at $950 million to $1.4 billion Australian.
This decision is in direct contradiction to advice given by Australia’s own government. In July 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commission inspected one of Serco’s facilities and raised “serious concerns” about human rights violations. Many refugee mothers were found to be suicidal, the conditions were filthy, and incidents of self-harm were rampant. Most shockingly, babies were found to have been kept in tiny metal containers, unable to crawl or walk. Despite a damning report, the government decided to continue its partnership with Serco.
As of now, Serco is set to earn between £100 million and £150 million annually from this new contract. Let’s hope that some of these funds go toward improving the quality of life for those in their care.
3. DynCorp Continues To Be Hired Despite Everything
Among all the companies we’ve exposed on Mytour, DynCorp stands out as one of the most deplorable. A private military contractor, its staff has consistently engaged in immoral actions. Yet, despite their behavior, they keep landing high-paying contracts from both the US and the UN.
In the late 1990s, DynCorp was hired to operate in Bosnia. With the awareness of some UN personnel, its employees were involved in the kidnapping, rape, and trafficking of local women. They also forced children into prostitution, tortured survivors of war, and even committed murders. When one employee blew the whistle on their actions, she was dismissed under false charges. In 2002, a British tribunal ruled that she had been unjustly fired and was likely telling the truth. A subsequent UN investigation confirmed a trafficking ring in Bosnia. Despite this, in 2003, DynCorp dropped all their appeals and was awarded a fresh contract to work in Iraq just three days later.
DynCorp’s transgressions extend beyond abuse. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), their financial records in Iraq showed a $1 billion gap. They also failed to supervise their training of Afghan police effectively, leading to billions of taxpayers' dollars being wasted. A Wikileaks cable even accused them of assisting their Afghan subcontractors in securing sexual services from children.
After all the controversies, you would expect governments to stop hiring DynCorp. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. In 2013, the company secured another billion-dollar contract to continue their work in Haiti.
2. The East India Company Devastates Two Continents, Receives a Record Bailout
The term “government bailout” today often brings to mind images of bankers gleefully siphoning off trillions of taxpayer dollars. However, the bank failures of the 21st century pale in comparison to the corporate welfare kingpins of history. Back in 1772, the East India Company (EIC) single-handedly caused Europe and India to collapse economically. In response, the British government stepped in to become the company’s very own private bank.
Thirteen years earlier, the East India Company had raised a private army and, through sheer force, conquered India. It used the wealth gained from this conquest to win over British MPs and buy parliamentary seats. These MPs then pushed the government to support the EIC’s military endeavors, even though it was a private corporation. This political manipulation enabled the EIC to grow rapidly, creating a massive economic bubble. That bubble finally burst in 1772, sending shockwaves around the world.
Across Europe, financial institutions collapsed, causing widespread paralysis. In India, the entire system teetered on the brink of collapse. Yet, instead of letting the company fail, the British government bailed out the East India Company, bestowing even more power upon it. By 1803, the company regarded itself as “an Empire within an Empire,” with the British government at its mercy. It wasn’t until 1859 that the British government finally had enough of the company’s excesses and took control by nationalizing it.
1. Pacific Rim Sues a Country After Its Subpar Mining Proposal Is Rejected
A few years ago, mining company Pacific Rim (now part of OceanaGold) submitted a proposal to the government of El Salvador to mine for gold on a site it owned near the San Sebastian River. This type of proposal is routine for private companies, but El Salvador rejected it after reviewing the application. The government’s report cited that the proposal did not meet environmental safety standards. Undeterred, Pacific Rim tried to sue the country for all it was worth.
In one court after another, the company insisted that the government compensate them to the tune of $300 million, nearly half of El Salvador’s entire annual budget. When critics highlighted the environmental dangers posed by gold mining, Pacific Rim argued that their mine would be the exception to the rule. When others pointed out that El Salvador’s water supply was already dangerously polluted, with only 2 percent deemed drinkable, the company dismissed their concerns. (It’s worth noting that initial exploration at the mine had already resulted in the contamination of clean water.)
When OceanaGold acquired Pacific Rim, they kept the lawsuit alive. As of now, the legal battle is still ongoing. At any moment, we might hear that a Central American nation has been driven to bankruptcy for rejecting a company’s poorly planned mining proposal.
