31. Freddie Mac
Year: 2003
Approx. Amount: $125 million penalties*
Company / Person Involved: David W. Glenn
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, also known as Freddie Mac, is a government-sponsored entity that loans people money to buy houses. In the early 2000s, the mortgage giant was fined $125 million in penalties after regulators found that it had sloppy, fraudulent accounting and serious governance issues.
Freddie Mac ©Dennis Diatel / Shutterstock.com
In addition to the fines, the errors and mistakes had to be corrected with the help of a federal regulator. It’s not a coincidence that, just a few short years later, the housing market collapsed, bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Freddie Mac helped create the bubble in housing prices, thanks to how much money it pumped into the America home finance system.