Following a series of Biden administration wins, the political internet was momentarily abuzz with “Dark Brandon” memes.
Some people loved them, some people hated them. Some argue that administration officials embracing the meme means the meme is, for all intents and purposes, effectively dead.
Leaving all of that aside, what’s interesting to me is the way the meme highlights what Revolving Door Project’s Jeff Hauser observes has been missing from the administration’s messaging strategy: narrative conflict.
“Biden is in desperate need of a villain,” Hauser writes in Democracy Journal, “and what that should translate into is a corporate crackdown. [...] [T]he best villains available today, on both policy and politics, are predatory megafirms whose abuses harm the public.”
I agree. So what makes the Dark Brandon meme interesting to me is that it introduces conflict – and it does so by reframing recent administration wins – including the expectation-smashing July jobs report, plunging gas prices, and passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – as defeats for villains.
(As an aside, I’m also pretty happy to see the laser eye look being reclaimed from crypto posters.)
Now maybe it’s true that White House communications staffers engaging in the meme makes it a whole lot less cool and maybe even kills it. The shelf life of a meme not what matters. What matters is White House engagement in a messaging strategy that foregrounds conflict with villains.
If they want to continue this strategy – and I think they should – then the smart thing for them to do would be to embrace conflict with corporate lawbreakers by ratcheting up enforcement against corporate crime.
Fighting corporate crime is popular. A Revolving Door Project / Data for Progress poll found that 70% of Republicans, 70% of independents and 70% of Democrats want the Biden administration to do more to fight corporate crime. And even stronger majorities support jail sentences for CEOs of lawbreaking corporations (82% of Democrats, 74% of Independents, 75% of Republicans).
Now the Justice Department’s top officials are already talking like turning this trend around is among their top priorities, and the FTC and CFPB are leading the charge with important consumer protection cases to fight Big Tech and Wall Street abuses.
Nevertheless, the previous fiscal year saw corporate prosecutions plunge to a record low.
The next step is for President Biden to empower, encourage, and take credit for his administration important corporate enforcement work, and to keep fighting for the resources to protect the public from corporate lawbreakers.
Big Business Blotter News Roundup
CONSUMER DATA RECKLESSNESS
Uber Enters Non-Prosecution Agreement Related to 2016 Data Breach - DOJ
As part of a non-prosecution agreement to resolve the investigation, Uber admitted to and accepted responsibility for the acts of its officers, directors, employees, and agents in concealing its 2016 data breach from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), which at the time of the 2016 breach had a pending investigation into the company’s data security practices.
FTC Explores Rules Cracking Down on Commercial Surveillance and Lax Data Security Practices - FTC
“Firms now collect personal data on individuals at a massive scale and in a stunning array of contexts,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The growing digitization of our economy—coupled with business models that can incentivize endless hoovering up of sensitive user data and a vast expansion of how this data is used—means that potentially unlawful practices may be prevalent. Our goal today is to begin building a robust public record to inform whether the FTC should issue rules to address commercial surveillance and data security practices and what those rules should potentially look like.”
U.S. Bank pressured and incentivized its employees to sell multiple products and services to its customers, including imposing sales goals as part of their employees’ job requirements. In response, U.S. Bank employees unlawfully accessed customers’ credit reports and sensitive personal data to apply for and open unauthorized accounts. U.S. Bank must make harmed customers whole and pay a $37.5 million penalty.
According to the SEC’s orders, from at least January 2017 to October 2019, the firms’ identity theft prevention programs did not include reasonable policies and procedures to identify relevant red flags of identity theft in connection with customer accounts or to incorporate those red flags into their programs. In addition, the SEC’s orders find that the firms’ programs did not include reasonable policies and procedures to respond appropriately to detected identity theft red flags, or to ensure that the programs were updated periodically to reflect changes in identity theft risks to customers.
RETAIL
T.J. Maxx has agreed to pay a $13 million fine for selling a number of recalled products, including Fisher-Price's Rock ’n Play Sleepers, an item linked to at least 30 infant deaths since 2009. The agreement settles charges that from March 2014 to October 2019, T.J. Maxx knowingly sold, offered and distributed products that were part of 21 different recalls.
One of the nation’s largest discount retailers continues to expose employees to the risk of injuries by flagrantly ignoring workplace safety regulations, this time with hazardous conditions found at two Ohio locations, in Maple Heights and Columbus. Since 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state OSHA programs have conducted more than 500 inspections at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree – operated by their parent company, Dollar Tree Inc. – and found more than 300 violations. During these inspections, OSHA routinely find exit routes, fire extinguishers and electrical panels dangerously obstructed or blocked; unsafe walking-working surfaces; and unstable stacks of merchandise. Following the Ohio inspections, OSHA proposed penalties of $1,233,364 for multiple violations.
The Federal Trade Commission today sued Walmart for allowing its money transfer services to be used by fraudsters, who fleeced consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that for years, the company turned a blind eye while scammers took advantage of its failure to properly secure the money transfer services offered at Walmart stores. The company did not properly train its employees, failed to warn customers, and used procedures that allowed fraudsters to cash out at its stores, according to the FTC’s complaint. The FTC is asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and to impose civil penalties for Walmart’s violations.
FOOD
Chipotle to pay $20 million to resolve New York City workplace case - Washington Post
Chipotle Mexican Grill has reached a $20 million settlement with New York City to resolve fair scheduling and sick leave violations affecting 13,000 current and former employees.
A federal workplace safety investigation into a Jan. 19, 2022, ammonia leak that hospitalized two workers and led to the evacuation of about 50 workers at a Canton poultry processing plant found their employer might have prevented the incident by ensuring required safety standards were followed. OSHA has proposed $110,630 in penalties.
HYUNDAI
Exclusive: Hyundai subsidiary has used child labor at Alabama factory - Reuters
A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker's assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.
CFPB Orders Hyundai to Pay $19 Million for Widespread Credit Reporting Failures - CFPB
In total, the CFPB found that Hyundai furnished inaccurate information in more than 8.7 million instances on more than 2.2 million consumer accounts during that period. The order requires Hyundai to take steps to prevent future violations and to pay more than $19 million, including $13.2 million in redress to affected consumers who were inaccurately reported as delinquent and a $6 million civil money penalty, making this the CFPB’s largest Fair Credit Reporting Act case against an auto servicer.
SACKLERS
Sackler Criminal Case Sought by Connecticut AG Over Opioids - Bloomberg
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said he’ll ask the state’s top prosecutor to consider criminal charges against members of the billionaire Sackler family over improper marketing of the opioid painkiller OxyContin by their company, Purdue Pharma LP.
Lucas Kunce: They're guilty of corporate manslaughter. Prosecute them - The Joplin Globe
The Department of Justice needs to actually enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act and break up the baby formula cartel so that it’s a functioning market, not just a few giant companies. Political elites won’t act because Abbott Nutrition’s corporate PAC has spent over $700,000 in campaign donations to Democrats and Republicans (nearly evenly split) in the last election. A classic American tale — bought-off politicians keeping their donors happy. Next, we prosecute everyone at Abbott who helped hide the unsanitary plant conditions from the FDA. They killed two babies. The Department of Justice must conduct a federal investigation, working with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, into the whistleblower’s allegations, and real justice must be served — those found responsible should be prosecuted and jailed. This is corporate manslaughter.
POLLUTION
FCA US LLC Sentenced in Connection with Conspiracy to Cheat U.S. Emissions Tests - DOJ
FCA US LLC (FCA US), formerly Chrysler Group LLC, was sentenced today in federal court in Detroit and ordered to pay a fine of $96,145,784; and a forfeiture money judgment of $203,572,892. The court also imposed a three-year term of organizational probation. The conviction results from the company’s conspiracy to defraud U.S. regulators and customers by making false and misleading representations about the design, calibration, and function of the emissions control systems on more than 100,000 Model Year 2014, 2015, and 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 diesel vehicles, and about these vehicles’ emission of pollutants, fuel efficiency, and compliance with U.S. emissions standards.
More than 50 cleanup workers have died, according to court records, and hundreds more have been sickened. Their lives have been upended, or ended in some cases, and they blame Jacobs Engineering, the company hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority to oversee the cleanup at its Kingston Fossil Plant, located about 40 miles west of Knoxville. They say they were not provided proper gear to protect their skin and lungs from exposure to coal ash. Jacobs denies their claims. Their case has taken a detour into Tennessee courts, and today the state Supreme Court will hear arguments that could determine whether the Kingston coal ash workers – and ultimately even coal ash workers across the United States – have legal recourse to sue for damages they say were caused by their exposure to coal ash.
Filed today in New Jersey Superior Court, the lawsuit seeks compensation from the defendants for Natural Resource Damages (NRD) caused by their corporate predecessor’s longtime manufacturing, distribution, and sale of toxic PCBs, as well as the company’s reckless long-term discharge of PCBs from its facility along the Delaware River in Bridgeport, Gloucester County.
The Polluter Just Got a Million-Dollar Fine. That Won’t Cure This Woman’s Rare Cancer. - ProPublica
Rhonda Fratzke’s oncologist asked if she had ever worked with vinyl chloride, a potent carcinogen. She had not, but she lived near a Westlake Chemical plant that was just fined a million dollars for polluting the air with the dangerous chemical.
ANTITRUST
FTC Seeks to Block Virtual Reality Giant Meta’s Acquisition of Popular App Creator Within - FTC
“Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman. “Meta already owns a best-selling virtual reality fitness app, and it had the capabilities to compete even more closely with Within’s popular Supernatural app. But Meta chose to buy market position instead of earning it on the merits. This is an illegal acquisition, and we will pursue all appropriate relief.”
Apple to Face Antitrust Lawsuit by Rival Excluded From App Store - Bloomberg Law
Apple Inc. lost its bid to exit antitrust litigation over claims it bans competing app distribution platforms from the iOS App Store, when a federal judge in Oakland, Calif., ruled that allegations of increasingly aggressive policies brought the case within the statute of limitations.
CRYPTO
CEO of Titanium Blockchain Pleads Guilty in $21 Million Cryptocurrency Fraud Scheme - DOJ
Stollery pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18 and faces up to 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Crypto Gets Its Very First Insider-Trading Indictment - NY Magazine
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice charged Nathaniel Chastain, a former Harvard poetry student and Mad Magazine jokester, with a single charge each of wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly front-running the crypto markets by buying up 45 NFTs and then selling them shortly after for at least double the money — and sometimes five times as much, according to the indictment. He was arrested this morning in New York and faces up to 40 years in prison for allegedly abusing his position at OpenSea, the Andreessen Horowitz–backed platform for buying and selling so-called non-fungible tokens.
Cryptocurrency Companies to Remain in U.S. Law Enforcement Crosshairs - WSJ
The landmark prosecution of cryptocurrency derivatives platform BitMEX, which saw the Justice Department and CFTC bring actions against the company and its founders, is likely the first of many such actions, Gretchen Lowe, acting director of the CFTC’s enforcement division, said Wednesday.