Implementing Enterprise Risk Management. Lam James

billion in fines for illegal activity that netted a mere $1 million.41

      Tax Evasion, typically via financial privacy-friendly havens such as Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Panama, and Luxembourg (among many others), can lead to reputational damage even when legal. But pressure from governments across the globe has led some jurisdictions to name names, so to speak, resulting in fines and other penalties.

      • In 2009, in a deal to avoid its criminal prosecution, UBS agreed to pay $780 million in fines, penalties, and restitution to the U.S. government and provide names of suspected U.S. tax cheats. UBS had an estimated 19,000 U.S. customers with undisclosed Swiss accounts.42

      • In 2014, another Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, pled guilty and paid $2.6 billion to settle U.S. tax evasion charges in addition to the $196 million penalty it paid the SEC earlier that year. A Senate subcommittee report detailed malpractices by the bank's employees to earn more business from U.S. citizens looking to hide income and assets.43

      • In 2016, the Panama Papers data leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, revealed the secretive offshore tax-avoidance schemes of thousands of individuals, ensnaring 12 national leaders, including Vladimir Putin and David Cameron, in embarrassing scandal.44

      Government Bailouts: During the 2008 financial crisis the U.S. federal government took the controversial decision to bail out some of the country's largest financial institutions and manufacturers amid fear that their failure could lead to an even more catastrophic economic meltdown. The bailouts, while they may have saved many companies from extinction, came at the price of greater public and government scrutiny (or outright control), reputational damage, and costly financial terms, not to mention additional regulation and the threat, as yet unrealized, of breaking up institutions deemed “too big to fail.”

      • In 2008 AIG's $85 billion bailout package left the U.S. government with a 79.9 % equity stake in the insurer. The two-year loan carried an interest rate of Libor plus 8.5 percentage points.45

      • Later that same year, General Motors and Chrysler received a total of $13.4 billion in federal loans. As a result of the bailouts, GM emerged from bankruptcy as a new company majority owned by the U.S. Treasury, and Chrysler emerged owned primarily by the United Auto Workers union and Italian automaker Fiat.46,47

      Sustainability: As public concern continues to focus on environmental and social issues, many companies are making sustainability a top priority. Environmental disasters such as oil spills, chemical releases, or nuclear accidents can cause horrendous damage, nearly limitless liability, and destroyed reputations. But even lesser missteps along the path to sustainability can raise accusations of “greenwashing” and call unwelcome attention to environmental practices and records.

      • BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, was the largest marine oil spill in history, causing untold environmental damage and dire economic effects across the Gulf Coast states. The disaster made BP CEO Tony Hayward a source of global derision and had the additional economic consequence of a moratorium on offshore drilling that left an estimated 8,000–12,000 temporarily unemployed. By the following year, Hayward lost his job and the company had lost almost a quarter of its market value.48 As of 2015, BP estimated the disaster cost the company $54.6 billion.49

      • Wal-Mart built the promise of “everyday low prices” into the largest retailer in the world. But fulfilling that promise means squeezing profit out of every transaction throughout the supply chain and labor market. How long, critics wonder, can this business model sustain itself?50 As Michelle Chen argued in a 2015 article in The Nation, “Every pricetag in Walmart's food inventory – which accounts for a quarter of the nation's grocery bill – is the product of agricultural subsidies, financialized commodities exchanges, and hyperinflated marketing.”51 Similarly, a report by Americans for Tax Fairness concluded that Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance, including food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing.52 Walmart's success at addressing the economic and social costs of these practices around the world has been mixed. In 2005 the company set out bold environmental goals including making 100 percent of its energy supply renewable and create zero waste, which have not met initial timelines. The retailer's own guidelines for ethical and sustainable sourcing, which pledged that outlets and suppliers “must fully comply with all applicable national and/or local laws and regulations…related to labor, immigration, health and safety, and the environment,” while admirable, have drawn unwelcome attention to its own labor practices.53