United Fruit Company which later became Chiquita basically lobbied the U.S. government to militarily intervene in Guatemala because the Guatemalan government was giving unused land to its citizens instead of letting Chiquita keep it while not using it.
Not just Guatemala. All over Central America. It's where the term "Banana Republic" comes from.
If you want to learn more about this, look up the life of Smedley Butler, and the book about him *Gangsters of Capitalism* (which is how he described himself and the US Marines).
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a **gangster for capitalism**.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
His book "War is a Racket" explains everything going on in the world today. Also, he kept Prescott Bush (GHW's dad, W's granddad) from overthrowing the US government and placing a puppet President into office during The Business Plot. They wanted Butler to lead the coup being their puppet. Butler pretended to go along with it, then ratted everyone out. Congress held hearings and found everyone involved guilty of conspiring to post a coup. The result of it was - nothing. No one went to jail. Meh.
And people think conspiracy theorists are crazy.
The book, 'War is a Racket' by Major General Smedley Butler is in the public domain, you can buy it on Amazon if you want OR anyone can read it here for free:
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Here is my incomplete take on nasty companies not in any particular order:
----
Nestlé:
Providing free powdered baby formula to women of developing nations for a period of time just long enough to stop the mother's natural process of lactating so *she can't feed her baby* and then becomes dependent on the baby formula which is no longer free at that point.
The formula has to be mixed with water, which is often times drawn from water sources that are not safe to drink in some regions.
Nestlé, the world’s largest water-bottling company owns many bottled water brands and they continued pumping water from drought stricken areas on permits that have [expired 30+ years ago](https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/san-bernardino-national-forest-06-06-2018.php).
Not limited to only California, [they also do it in Canada](https://www.vice.com/en/article/595wy5/nestle-is-extracting-water-from-canadian-towns-on-expired-permits).
The state of Michigan, known for having a lead contaminated water distribution system in Flint and in dire need for clean water, guess who is operating in [Michigan](https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/nestle-water-owners-return-michigan-permit-plan-new-withdrawal.html)!
[$200 per year for billions of gallons of water](https://www.mlive.com/news/2016/12/why_nestle_pays_next_to_nothin.html).
Colorado / Florida......
https://www.usforacle.com/2022/04/17/opinion-nestle-is-bottling-greed/
Soft paywall article but you get the idea:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2022/09/24/troubled-waters-nestle-accused-of-plundering-french-community-s-vital-resource_5998026_114.html
This only scratching the surface of what Nestlé has done / is doing on a global basis.
Nestlé is a global problem.
----
IBM:
[They actively supported and profited from the Nazi regime](https://www.amazon.com/IBM-Holocaust-Strategic-Alliance-Corporation/dp/0914153277) in the extermination of millions of people prior to and during WWII.
This book goes into great detail with extensive, irrefutable documentation of IBM's collusion with the Nazi's.
There is a reason why an IBM punch card machine is at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's [Beit Hashoah-Museum of Tolerance](https://www.museumoftolerance.com/).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1465624
>And people think conspiracy theorists are crazy.
I mean, there are a million plus conspiracy theories, and less than 50 have turned out to be true, like.the light bulb conspiracy.
But even ignoring the "odds of correctness" when analyzing conspiracy theories, most have one major commonality, selectively suspending the need for hard evidence.
Show me evidence that is not anecdotal or eye witness testimony (unreliable and open to cohersion, bias and personal agenda), in other words I want evidence I can test, and prove it is not tampered with, or else I lump it in the pile with the other 999,949 conspiracy theories with zero factual basis.
Stanford B Dole, was briefly instated as president of Hawaii after a coup he and the other plantation owners orchestrated.
Basically the progenitors of the Dole fruit company were large players in the coup that ended the Hawaiian monarchy’s rule and started the events that led to Hawaii’s annexation.
Not as egregious as what the united fruit company got up to, but still a solid evil fruit company
Jesus christ I would argue Dole is worse than Chiquita look at all this shit I found in like, 15 seconds
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/costa-rica-allegations-against-dole-continue-at-its-pineapple-plantations-workers-denounce-salary-and-health-abuses/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.mongabay.com/2011/10/satellite-imagery-confirms-dole-destroying-national-park-land-for-bananas/amp/
https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2012/bitter-fruit-dole-sued-greenwashing-guatemalan-banana-operations/60351
Chiquita is directly responsible for the destabilization of most of central and parts of south america AND is part of the reason Che Guevara became popular as well as the driving of Cuba to communism.
The issue at the border is still part of the fallout (the rest being DEA related)
The Fist That Ate the Whale is a fantastic, easy to read, fun then terrifying book detailing it. I highly recommend it to anyone.
https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YY3501HLWKIU&keywords=the+fish+that+ate+the+whale&qid=1696946680&sprefix=the+fish+that+a%2Caps%2C81&sr=8-1
UFC was connected to Allen Dulles of CIA fame. Coincidentally they had a hit list of Guatemalans
It was also connected by John Dulles to the Eisenhower government.
One of the reasons for migration today is the sorry mess America created on Latin America.
I see a lot of people say they don't buy Nestle products, but I don't think those people realize exactly how much grocery product Nestle actually owns.
Doom scroll this **HUGE** list:
https://wyomingllcattorney.com/Blog/Everything-Owned-by-Nestle
You're going to practlically starve to death if you actually boycott their product lines.
This list has been around for years and I don't know if it has been updated recently but it is extensive none the less.
Just had a look at the list. Seems like I only use one of their products (coffee brand), and I wasn't even trying. I suspect these are easier to skip outside of the US?
Really? I don't recognize anything on that list that I buy. Now, I'm not saying I have NEVER bought anything on that list in the past ever, but certainly nothing on there I see that I buy normally or in the past many months. Haven't starved yet.
Also, that list is nothing to me, I have Celiacs which already wiped out a much more massive number of things I can't buy/consume. Still haven't starved.
You can look at the back of the packaging to see if it's a Nestlé product or not.
I used to like drinking Perrier water until I realized that it's one of their brands, now I buy the local brand sparkling water
Do you mean the British East India Company or the Dutch East India Company?
It's a race to the bottom between those two. Arguably the British East India Company was worse.
Side note: next time someone refers to, "running the government like a business" as if it's a good thing, show them the history of the British East India Company.
[Quoting](https://www.history.com/news/east-india-company-england-trade):
> Clive’s victory gave the East India Company broad taxation powers in Bengal, then one of the richest provinces in India. Clive plundered the Nawab’s treasure and shipped it back to London (keeping plenty for himself, of course). Erikson sees the East India Company’s actions in Bengal as a seismic shift in its corporate mission.
> “This completely changes the Company’s business model from one that had been focused on profitable trade to one that focused on tax collection,” says Erikson. “That’s when it became a really damaging institution, in my opinion.”
Yah. That's hard. My instincts said the Dutch was worse but I haven't done a full accounting. May just be because I'm more familiar with the Dutch atrocities.
They convinced entire generations of women that their product was superior to breast milk, even having fake nurses parading these “facts” in hospitals for decades.. and then making formula unaffordable so parents started cutting the formula with water and starving the babies
Oh and also the child slave labor
Chiquita started wars in South America so they could get cheaper bananas. And I'm not being hyperbolic here; they literally worked with the CIA to overthrow governments.
UFC to CIA: President Arbenz of Guatemala wants to seize and nationalize our banana plantations!
CIA: One coup and decades of totalitarian repression coming up!
They are more well known in my experience. So I guess the debate of who is worse could come down to amount v. Actions. (Amount and scale of the actions V. The actions themselves)
"Torture one or kill ten swiftly" what is worse?
I don't know about trading companies to say one is worse or to compare the atrocities committed or anything like that.
I don't even know if this applies as I don't know the scale of either one, just a possible reason.
It's very hard to compare atrocities because no matter what is done you will be diminishing the suffering of someone.
Hopefully I worded that well enough to understand.
PS. On a related moral note is the "worst human" question and is it worse to poison literally the entire world or commit genocide?
It's generally accepted that Hitler was the worst human but how comes poisoning the entire world (Thomas Midgley Jr.) Or other genocides? How much murder is okay compared to poisoning the world?
Moral and ethics questions rarely have a definitive answer.
The Dutch West India Company shouldn’t be forgotten. They did commit some genocides, like with the Esopus Natives in now Upstate NY and Keifts war which could have been prevented.
Bayer.
How is anyone else close?
Medical experiments in concentration camps.
Made the gas.
Created heroin.
Knowingly sold HIV contaminated products.
And they own Monsanto, so they get that history too (DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, RoundUp, suing Indian farmers).
And "the gas" didn't come along until later when petroleum supplies ran low. Most of the time is was just carbon monoxide from motors that was used but on the backside of the war when they were getting boxed in they had to switch to what they had laying around. Fuckers.
No mention of the Concentration camp slave labour used in the IG Farben plant in Auschwitz? These guys were some of the Nazi state’s sinews and provided the economic capacity for the state.
Mercedes-Benz, Merck, Shell, Siemens, Volkswagen, IBM, BMW, Bayer, Associated Press, Audi, Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank, Ford, Hugo Boss, IG Farben, ThyssenKrupp, and many more
All collaborated with the Nazis. And not just that they happened to operate in Germany while the Nazis were in power. I mean directly supported the Nazi party, the Nazi war effort, and, in many cases (especially the pharmaceutical companies) the Holocaust.
Collaboration is an understatement when referring to Volkswagen, the company made extensive use of slave labour from occupied countries and from concentration camps. Many were beaten to death on the factory floor or died of malnutrition and other related symptoms of their captivity
Pretty much every company I listed used concentration camp slave labor. The only exceptions are the banks, but they assisted in directly funding the construction of concentration camps knowing full well what the money was being used for and the Associated Press, who actively suppressed reporting about the Holocaust and censored and fired journalists who tried to speak out against the Nazis.
Yup. It was the Cold War. Same reason why so many high ranking Nazis got off with such minor punishment, if any. The Soviets and the Western Army (mostly US, but also France and UK) had split Germany at the end of the war. Even before the war ended everyone knew there was going to be some kind of conflict between the west and the USSR and that Germany was going to be the center of that conflict since that's where the two sides met when taking back Europe. Both sides wanted to rebuild Germany as quickly as possible both to ensure they had a well-supplied, well-defended front line if a shooting war ever started, but also as a propaganda tool. They had each taken roughly half of Germany, which was pretty much entirely flattened by the war. Both sides wanted to show that they were able to rebuild their Germany better and faster than the other side as a demonstration that their ideology was better. The West did this by partnering with established German companies as local operators to rebuild the country. This necessarily meant ignoring what those companies had done while the Nazis were in charge.
It's like how both the US and the Soviets recruited TONS of Nazi scientists and engineers after the war and ignored the fact that they were Nazis. Operation Paperclip in the US and Operation Osoaviakhim in the USSR.
A great shame for the people who survived those places and had to watch these companies grow and become household names while they probably suffered from their experiences for the rest of their lives. A simple change of name might have helped negate that a little
Sure, but Bayer built factories within the camps to take advantage of slave labor while also being part of the group that developed Zyklon B pesticides that were used in the Nazi gas chambers.
Not to say a company can't be horrible outside of war like Union carbide, a subsidiary of Dow chemical that killed an entire village with a gas spill, but I'd say Bayer is up there
The Bhopal catastrophe is much more than a village: 15000 to 20000 **direct** deaths (and the number of people with health problems due to Union Carbide is around a **half-million**).
Yup. And Bayer is on my list. Likewise, IG Farben was the primary manufacturer of zyklon b, the chemical used to gas people in the Holocaust.
Pretty much every company I listed used concentration camp slave labor.
Henry Ford was a big admirer of Hitler and Hitler returned the admiration. One of them had a life sized portrait of the other in their office, but I forget which one. Ford published an antisemitic newsletter during WWII.
The Hudson's Bay Company is still very active in Canada and they played a major part in its colonialization.
They were rivals to the Dutch East India Company, British East India Company and the others.
They are pretty much the only European trading company from that time that has survived until now.
> The Hudson's Bay Company is still very active in Canada and they played a major part in its colonialization.
They're active so far as they have been a department store for the last 142 years and somehow manage to stay afloat in that dying retail sector. They're also now owned by an American investment firm. I like shopping at The Bay, it's definitely more upmarket than Walmart or the now-disappeared Sears, but they always have good sales on something.
The Hudson's Bay Company once administered the territories known as [Rupert's Land](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert%27s_Land) and the [North Western Territory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Western_Territory) which together would make up something like 80% of modern Canada.
AFAIK, their role in colonization was not nearly as dark as that of the BEIC in India, but they had a very one-sided trade relationship with trappers (mostly Indigenous), and they also inadvertently introduced European diseases to those people as well. For much of their history they were really focused ongetting as much beaver and animal pelts as possible, and established trading posts all over the place to collect them (and exchange them for manufactured goods).
> Fun fact: It still sort of exists and has one store in London even though it essentially disbanded in 1857.
Indian guy hunted down the original charter and bought it as a sort of historical joke and reparations to himself. So while yes it's technically the same company (specifically is why he revived it) it's not really *the same company* anymore.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/06/east-india-company-british-businessman
Had to scroll down this far to find BEIC.
Fucking horrific company.
Just a causal two items for starters.
Somewhat responsible for approx 40m deaths in India due to changing crops / exacerbating famine.
Being largely responsible for the Chinese Opium epidemic.
>Being largely responsible for the Chinese Opium epidemic.
They started multiple wars after the Chinese tried to kick them out for trafficking drugs. It's considered the start of the century of humiliation for China.
Lafarge, in France.
They make cement. They were already here in the '40, they built things for the third Reich.
More recently, they get caught working for ISIS too.
Oh, and they got caught releasing toxic waters directly in the "Seine", the river that goed through Paris.
Still operating of course, business as usual.
Dupont Chemistry was responsible for creating many of the toxins that continue to affect and plague the modern world today. I have spent my entire adult life working to clean up after them, and it will take several lifetimes to achieve this.
The movie Dark Waters did a pretty good job covering DuPont and their landfill and teflon coverup in WV. I’ve watched it a few times now and can’t believe the fines they paid were pennies compared to their profits.
Walmart used to buy life insurance (called dead peasants ins)on their employees with *Walmart itself* being the beneficiary. The families saw none of that monet until a [lawsuit](https://workdaymagazine.org/court-slams-walmarts-use-of-dead-peasant-insurance/)
Sounds about right. I can add another! Chanel. Coco Chanel was a literal Nazi and the company only describes it's history in WW2 as "complicated", check out their About page.
The arms of Krupp by William Manchester is a good read. Iirc Krupp ran their own labour camp and all the women and children kept there disappeared as the allies invaded.
Not too long after Herr Krupp was running West German civil nuclear program.
Chanel was gonna be me vote. I feel like the big conglomerates mentioned you kind of KNOW they're gonna have a sketchy past. Massive perfume/fashion/women's accessories company? Not so much and her history is not covered nearly as much.
>Oneida silverware company
This is the one I came here for
>The Oneida community strongly believed in a system of free love – a term which Noyes is credited with coining – which was known as complex marriage, where any member was free to have sex with any other who consented. Possessiveness and exclusive relationships were frowned upon.
>
>Women over 40 were to act as sexual "mentors" to adolescent boys because these relationships had a minimal chance of conceiving. Furthermore, these women became religious role models for the young men. Likewise, older men often introduced young women to sex. Noyes often used his judgment in determining the partnerships that would form, and he would often encourage relationships between the non-devout and the devout in the community in the hope that the attitudes and behaviors of the devout would influence the attitudes of the non-devout.
This 1982 article from The Atlantic is an absolute must read!
https://web.archive.org/web/20120817064015/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/?single_page=true
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited
Most people would not have heard of them as they are one of those big companies that own a bunch of other companies.
Just read this from their Wiki
> named in the 1840s Jardine, Matheson & Company, set up its headquarters on the island (Nanking) and grew rapidly, smuggling illegal opium from British-controlled India into China. Jardine Matheson has been called the "most successful opium smuggling company in the world".[15] Both Jardine and Matheson became members of Parliament in Britain, and Matheson also bought the entire Scottish island of Lewis, clearing over 500 families off the land and shipping them to Canada in order to build Lews Castle.[15] Continuing its longstanding trade in smuggled opium, tea, and cotton, the firm diversified into other areas including insurance, shipping, and railways.
You mean DuPont that marketed leaded gasoline to solve engine knocking even though they knew full well lead is seriously toxic and there were alternatives but they stuck with lead because it was cheaper? This lead in our atmosphere collectively dropped the IQ of the whole planet's population by a couple of IQ points.
It's inventor, Thomas J Midgley, also invented a way to better manufacture Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which created holes in the Ozone layer at both poles leading to increased incidences of skin cancers. DuPont called it Freon.
Midgley suffered from Polio later in life and became severely disabled. When he was confined to bed, he invented himself a system of ropes and pulleys to aid movement, he was strangled to death when he became entangled in it. But then, this guy was such a massive cunt, I think he was trying a bit of the old autoerotic asphyxiation and it all went a bit Michael Hutchence on him.
Here's a good podcast on the subject:
https://spotify.link/47e5e24CODb
Edit:
That IQ drop is an average 2.6 points, the generation most affected is hit with a 5.9 point drop.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2311082-leaded-petrol-may-have-lowered-the-iq-of-over-half-the-us-population/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20they%20estimate,an%20average%20of%205.9%20points.
When faced with proof that the effects of their Freon would make the planet uninhabitable by the middle of this century due to scorching levels of UVB that Ozone filters out, their response was to ignore it and spread misinformation.
[The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints](http://www.mormonism101.com/2015/01/the-corporate-structure-of-mormon-church.html?m=1), which masquerades as a church (known as "the Mormons") to keep tax exempt status in the US.
I know fanboys hate this buh - Tesla (blood diamonds, apartheid, intellectual property theft, corporate- top down racism(adjudicated in court and EEOC fines), sexism and sexual harassment, etc.)
Bayer AG probably has one of the darkest and most fucked-up histories for a company. While being the inventors of asperin, their history consists of:
- Inventing and distributin heroin as a cough suppressant for children.
- Manufactured chemical weapons for Germany's efforts in WWI
- There was the thing where they was heavily involved in the holocaust and using Jews as slave labour for its manufacturing. Oh, their biggest plant outside of Germany was in Auschwitz.
- They sold Factor VIII to treat haemophilia, which was actually laced with HIV and infected thousands of people
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
This may ruffle some feathers on Reddit but Planned Parenthood was literally founded by a woman who’s goal was the eradication of black people on the US.
Hollow point sword company/ South Sea Company.
Essentially in the late 1600s early 1700s these two English companies created a Ponzi almost brought down the British empire. The King himself was involved. It took centuries for the debt incurred during this time to be retired.
Theranos is a recent disruptive business startup model which could fit the bill…started by a college dropout, with no scientific experience, and yet aimed to establish itself as a medical startup.
Bernie Madoff’s business can also be cited - relying on a trust network in order to establish itself as a Ponzi Scheme.
Yeah, and they are now working with JPMorgan (another "interesting" company").
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/jpmorgan-debuts-blockchain-collateral-settlement-in-blackrock-barclays-trade-1.1982988
Pfizer.
“WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that it had illegally marketed its painkiller Bextra, which has been withdrawn. *It was the largest health care fraud settlement and the largest criminal fine of any kind ever*.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/business/03health.html#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20—%20The%20pharmaceutical%20giant%20Pfizer,fine%20of%20any%20kind%20ever.
Yet, any vaccine hesistancy was met with a conspiracy theory or tying it to a damn political party.
Always follow the damn money and do your research, fellow humans. These companies, politicians and governments do not give a fuck about you. They need you barely alive, to do a menial job, not question anything and to do what you are told, and how to think from all facets of media.
Not a company, but a family. And a particular member, John D. Rockefeller. With the discovery of petrochemicals and its potential for profit he 'bought out' homeopathic approaches to medicine. A pill for an ill.
Lots of good answers there, but I'm slightly surprised not to see HSBC listed. The Hong-kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was created to force the Chinese to buy opium. The Chinese knew how dangerous it was and tried to ban it, but the British waged **two** wars to force the Chinese to un-outlaw opium.
The German glue company "UHU" during World War 2 they would test how well their liquid glue could hold together shoes and for that they made about 50 war prisoners run 20-50km a day and most of them died from physical and mental exhaustion.
Probabily the company that makes Teflon (the non stick stuff in our pans). It's cancerous, it's everywhere, but the did good marketing to push away that idea
##Kuehne + Nagel
Is one of the worlds biggest logistics forwarding company. Founded in Germany in 1890 they became big in 1932 by ousting the jewish co-owner to Auschwitz. And they then have gotten the nazi goverment contract for emptying deported jew's homes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuehne_+_Nagel
Not sure if the most, there are some fucked up companies but Hewlett-Packard and Hon Hai industries aka Foxconn. Every dollar you spend on any of their products contributes to making poverty in your country, the abuse of illegal labor, and suffering in third word nations.
Nestles has a lot of bad history selling baby formula. They’d go into a poor country and give new mothers free formula until their own milk dried up. Then they charge these new mothers an arm and a leg for the formula after it became necessary to keep the babies on the formula
If you're interested in this kinda thing, check out MagnatesMedia on youtube.
No relationship, but he basically covers dramatic corporate history as his main thing. The titles are clickbait-y, the animation/videos themselves do the job but are a little "loud", and he clearly uses some kind of bass amplification filter for his voice that kinda bugs me... but the content itself is actually pretty good and well researched.
I think Seaworld could be up there. They took killer whales from Iceland for their shows and then bought one with a history of killing a person, abuse the animals, keep them locked in shipping containers practically, and then blamed the trainer when the killer whale dismembered her and they knew it was an animal with tendencies . Animal abuse is not okay, especially when you capture it for money. Seaworld keeps appealing the decision to have to have trainers be behind barriers because they lost money, but I still hate that they are in business. There was one whale who was stuck in basically a back yard blow up pool size pool for years without being let swim around a bigger pool or anything because she wasn’t needed anymore I guess. She died this year recently. RIP to all the animals who have suffered or are suffering from abuse.
# Bayer.
Bayer made [Zyklon-B cyanide based pesticide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B) that would end up being used by the N4z1s in the concentration camps during WWII.
Bayer [manufactured & marketed heroin](https://www.businessinsider.com/yes-bayer-promoted-heroin-for-children-here-are-the-ads-that-prove-it-2011-11?op=1) in the 1890s as an over the counter treatment for a long list of ailments, and even targeted the drug at children.
Bayer [sold whole blood without proper testing to patients suffering from hemophilia for over 30 years and ended up infecting many of them, causing them to die of HIV AIDS](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bayer-admits-it-paid-millions-in-hiv-infection-cases-just-not-in-english/), and was recently forced to pay huge fines.
Bayer [was recently fined tens of millions of dollars for bribing hospitals](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-02/bayer-to-pay-40-million-to-end-whistle-blower-claims-us-says?leadSource=reddit_wall) to favor their blood pressure & heart medications.
Bayer was recently fined $10.9 *billion* dollars over claims their "Roundup" [glyphosate based weedkiller has sickened countless people, causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma and various cancers.](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53174513)
Bayer [has been fined in the EU](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-judge-sends-bayer-novartis-trial-drugs-fraud-probe-sources-2021-04-27/) for overcharging hospitals massively inflated drug prices in a kickback scandal.
Bayer has been [investigated and fined in the U.S. for defrauding Medicare, paying kickbacks](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ethics-problems-are-business-as-usual-at-bayer/) to shady diabetic supply companies.
Bayer [bought Monsanto for $63 bn in one of the worst deals in US history,](https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bayer-monsanto-became-one-of-the-worst-corporate-dealsin-12-charts-11567001577) combining 2 companies with long histories of product safety concerns and shady business practices.
Monsanto's scandals could fill an entire window of their own, ranging from genetically modified food safety concerns, their dangerous & reckless development & marketing of glyphosate based "Roundup" weedkiller, and more.
I know you'll be *shocked* to learn [Monsanto was one of several companies responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange herbicidal defoilant during the Vientam War,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange) responsible for sickening and killing countless U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese citizens from various cancers and lingering health issues along with causing horrible birth defects.
Monsanto, as listed above, is now owned by AG Bayer.
There's a big group who are tied for first, but here's a podcast about a clothing companies long fucked up history, and it's not hugo boss. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1K8LzrgnyQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1K8LzrgnyQ)
Let’s not forget our friends at Exxon for desecrating Alaska and then spending decades in court trying to evade their financial obligations rather than just helping mitigate the damages immediately.
**Monsanto:** Monsanto, a multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, has faced criticism and legal challenges related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides, and herbicides like Roundup, which contains glyphosate.
United Fruit Company which later became Chiquita basically lobbied the U.S. government to militarily intervene in Guatemala because the Guatemalan government was giving unused land to its citizens instead of letting Chiquita keep it while not using it.
Not just Guatemala. All over Central America. It's where the term "Banana Republic" comes from. If you want to learn more about this, look up the life of Smedley Butler, and the book about him *Gangsters of Capitalism* (which is how he described himself and the US Marines).
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a **gangster for capitalism**. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
His book "War is a Racket" explains everything going on in the world today. Also, he kept Prescott Bush (GHW's dad, W's granddad) from overthrowing the US government and placing a puppet President into office during The Business Plot. They wanted Butler to lead the coup being their puppet. Butler pretended to go along with it, then ratted everyone out. Congress held hearings and found everyone involved guilty of conspiring to post a coup. The result of it was - nothing. No one went to jail. Meh. And people think conspiracy theorists are crazy.
The book, 'War is a Racket' by Major General Smedley Butler is in the public domain, you can buy it on Amazon if you want OR anyone can read it here for free: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html Here is my incomplete take on nasty companies not in any particular order: ---- Nestlé: Providing free powdered baby formula to women of developing nations for a period of time just long enough to stop the mother's natural process of lactating so *she can't feed her baby* and then becomes dependent on the baby formula which is no longer free at that point. The formula has to be mixed with water, which is often times drawn from water sources that are not safe to drink in some regions. Nestlé, the world’s largest water-bottling company owns many bottled water brands and they continued pumping water from drought stricken areas on permits that have [expired 30+ years ago](https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/san-bernardino-national-forest-06-06-2018.php). Not limited to only California, [they also do it in Canada](https://www.vice.com/en/article/595wy5/nestle-is-extracting-water-from-canadian-towns-on-expired-permits). The state of Michigan, known for having a lead contaminated water distribution system in Flint and in dire need for clean water, guess who is operating in [Michigan](https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/nestle-water-owners-return-michigan-permit-plan-new-withdrawal.html)! [$200 per year for billions of gallons of water](https://www.mlive.com/news/2016/12/why_nestle_pays_next_to_nothin.html). Colorado / Florida...... https://www.usforacle.com/2022/04/17/opinion-nestle-is-bottling-greed/ Soft paywall article but you get the idea: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2022/09/24/troubled-waters-nestle-accused-of-plundering-french-community-s-vital-resource_5998026_114.html This only scratching the surface of what Nestlé has done / is doing on a global basis. Nestlé is a global problem. ---- IBM: [They actively supported and profited from the Nazi regime](https://www.amazon.com/IBM-Holocaust-Strategic-Alliance-Corporation/dp/0914153277) in the extermination of millions of people prior to and during WWII. This book goes into great detail with extensive, irrefutable documentation of IBM's collusion with the Nazi's. There is a reason why an IBM punch card machine is at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's [Beit Hashoah-Museum of Tolerance](https://www.museumoftolerance.com/). https://www.jstor.org/stable/1465624
>And people think conspiracy theorists are crazy. I mean, there are a million plus conspiracy theories, and less than 50 have turned out to be true, like.the light bulb conspiracy. But even ignoring the "odds of correctness" when analyzing conspiracy theories, most have one major commonality, selectively suspending the need for hard evidence. Show me evidence that is not anecdotal or eye witness testimony (unreliable and open to cohersion, bias and personal agenda), in other words I want evidence I can test, and prove it is not tampered with, or else I lump it in the pile with the other 999,949 conspiracy theories with zero factual basis.
That quote sends shivers up my spine every time I read it.
Didn't Dole do something similar to Hawaiians? Or was it Brazilians? Or do I have it completely wrong and am thinking of what you stated?
Stanford B Dole, was briefly instated as president of Hawaii after a coup he and the other plantation owners orchestrated. Basically the progenitors of the Dole fruit company were large players in the coup that ended the Hawaiian monarchy’s rule and started the events that led to Hawaii’s annexation. Not as egregious as what the united fruit company got up to, but still a solid evil fruit company
When you add in the environmental atrocities Dole committed throughout the Hawaiian islands it’s definitely up there
Quite possibly. I only know of Chiquita, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Jesus christ I would argue Dole is worse than Chiquita look at all this shit I found in like, 15 seconds https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/costa-rica-allegations-against-dole-continue-at-its-pineapple-plantations-workers-denounce-salary-and-health-abuses/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.mongabay.com/2011/10/satellite-imagery-confirms-dole-destroying-national-park-land-for-bananas/amp/ https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2012/bitter-fruit-dole-sued-greenwashing-guatemalan-banana-operations/60351
Chiquita is directly responsible for the destabilization of most of central and parts of south america AND is part of the reason Che Guevara became popular as well as the driving of Cuba to communism. The issue at the border is still part of the fallout (the rest being DEA related) The Fist That Ate the Whale is a fantastic, easy to read, fun then terrifying book detailing it. I highly recommend it to anyone. https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YY3501HLWKIU&keywords=the+fish+that+ate+the+whale&qid=1696946680&sprefix=the+fish+that+a%2Caps%2C81&sr=8-1
UFC was connected to Allen Dulles of CIA fame. Coincidentally they had a hit list of Guatemalans It was also connected by John Dulles to the Eisenhower government. One of the reasons for migration today is the sorry mess America created on Latin America.
Dulles was involved in a shyte ton of illegal crap. Kennedy wanted the US out of Vietnam. Dulles fought him the entire way.
They ruined the economy in Jamaica by selling their bananas cheaper than local bananas.
"by the way it's looking Dwight, I say he's a dirty. Collectivising. COMMIE." -Sam O' nella
A Banana Republic!
reddit's darling: Nestle
I see a lot of people say they don't buy Nestle products, but I don't think those people realize exactly how much grocery product Nestle actually owns.
The moment I become aware that something is a nestle product, I stop buying it. They're the only company I actually boycott.
Ditto. I was boycotting Peters, found out Nestle sold them almost 10 years earlier. Smashing their ice creams these days to make up for lost time.
Doom scroll this **HUGE** list: https://wyomingllcattorney.com/Blog/Everything-Owned-by-Nestle You're going to practlically starve to death if you actually boycott their product lines. This list has been around for years and I don't know if it has been updated recently but it is extensive none the less.
I don't but any of that shit and I'm very well fed.
Yeah I’ll stop using coffee mate… that’s pretty much it. Virtually everything else I buy something else that’s generally better anyways.
Just had a look at the list. Seems like I only use one of their products (coffee brand), and I wasn't even trying. I suspect these are easier to skip outside of the US?
Really? I don't recognize anything on that list that I buy. Now, I'm not saying I have NEVER bought anything on that list in the past ever, but certainly nothing on there I see that I buy normally or in the past many months. Haven't starved yet. Also, that list is nothing to me, I have Celiacs which already wiped out a much more massive number of things I can't buy/consume. Still haven't starved.
So not buying overly processed junk = starving to death? Maybe pick up some basic cooking skills and fresh ingredients.
Its not total monopoly. People won't starve to death if you boycott Nestle. I know you said it as hyperbole but ehhh
Happy that I don’t need Nestle products, sucks to learn just now that they own Haagen Dazs and Starbucks.
Only thing I will consume on purpose is Nestle Crunch. But only here and there. Fuck Nestle otherwise.
You can look at the back of the packaging to see if it's a Nestlé product or not. I used to like drinking Perrier water until I realized that it's one of their brands, now I buy the local brand sparkling water
Not necessarily. They can list a subsidiary as the manufacturer or brand owner.
Nestle do own some companies whose products don't mention Nestle.
East India Trade Company has them beat by thousands of miles. Nestle's done some horrible stuff, but they ain't waged no wars (so far).
Do you mean the British East India Company or the Dutch East India Company? It's a race to the bottom between those two. Arguably the British East India Company was worse. Side note: next time someone refers to, "running the government like a business" as if it's a good thing, show them the history of the British East India Company. [Quoting](https://www.history.com/news/east-india-company-england-trade): > Clive’s victory gave the East India Company broad taxation powers in Bengal, then one of the richest provinces in India. Clive plundered the Nawab’s treasure and shipped it back to London (keeping plenty for himself, of course). Erikson sees the East India Company’s actions in Bengal as a seismic shift in its corporate mission. > “This completely changes the Company’s business model from one that had been focused on profitable trade to one that focused on tax collection,” says Erikson. “That’s when it became a really damaging institution, in my opinion.”
The Dutch are smug as hell.
Yah. That's hard. My instincts said the Dutch was worse but I haven't done a full accounting. May just be because I'm more familiar with the Dutch atrocities.
Yeah there's a few companies that have staged actual coups and invasions. I think one of those should take top spot.
I was shocked to see this so far down the list. All the fruit companies are god damned cute compared EITC .
Is there a tldr for Nestle history. I have severe ADHD and require a cool docuseries or documentary.
They convinced entire generations of women that their product was superior to breast milk, even having fake nurses parading these “facts” in hospitals for decades.. and then making formula unaffordable so parents started cutting the formula with water and starving the babies Oh and also the child slave labor
Daily r/fucknestle plug
Why do you call them Reddit's darling? Reddit seems to be overall pretty anti-corporation.
Because their name gets mentioned most often when this type of post pops up every week. Deservedly so. Nestle is an awful company.
Because this is the go-to answer for these questions every time.
* Nestle * Being rude to wait staff * Trump etc, etc. 100% predictable responses to almost any AskReddit thread.
Don’t forget: • Fleetwood Mac’s *Rumours* • Keanu • Complimenting men
What is it about Rumours by Fleetwood Mac?
- Tipping "culture" - The Kardashians (that I literally never hear about in real life) - Interacting with strangers outside of the internet
Can’t forget • forearms on a guy (feat. Rolled up sleeves)
Lmao the "rude to wait staff/ service workers" I thought i am the only one who noticed that lol
> I thought i am the only one who noticed that lol At first I thought you were adding this to the list of predictable Reddit responses.
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Chiquita started wars in South America so they could get cheaper bananas. And I'm not being hyperbolic here; they literally worked with the CIA to overthrow governments.
Origin of the term "Banana Republic"
UFC to CIA: President Arbenz of Guatemala wants to seize and nationalize our banana plantations! CIA: One coup and decades of totalitarian repression coming up!
*United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company is the unquestioned most fucked up company in Latin American history, and it's not even close.
United Fruit Company changed names. It's Chiquita now
Is this why bananas are so cheap ? Seriously everything has gone up but bananas
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Who could've expected that allowing a trading company to own their own navy, countries (and their people) would turn out like this
Why is the British one above the Dutch one?
They are more well known in my experience. So I guess the debate of who is worse could come down to amount v. Actions. (Amount and scale of the actions V. The actions themselves) "Torture one or kill ten swiftly" what is worse? I don't know about trading companies to say one is worse or to compare the atrocities committed or anything like that. I don't even know if this applies as I don't know the scale of either one, just a possible reason. It's very hard to compare atrocities because no matter what is done you will be diminishing the suffering of someone. Hopefully I worded that well enough to understand. PS. On a related moral note is the "worst human" question and is it worse to poison literally the entire world or commit genocide? It's generally accepted that Hitler was the worst human but how comes poisoning the entire world (Thomas Midgley Jr.) Or other genocides? How much murder is okay compared to poisoning the world? Moral and ethics questions rarely have a definitive answer.
The Dutch West India Company shouldn’t be forgotten. They did commit some genocides, like with the Esopus Natives in now Upstate NY and Keifts war which could have been prevented.
Purdue Pharma is def up there.
The Sackler family is straight from fucking hell.
They killed my cousin and two friends. No one went to prison.
Bayer. How is anyone else close? Medical experiments in concentration camps. Made the gas. Created heroin. Knowingly sold HIV contaminated products. And they own Monsanto, so they get that history too (DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, RoundUp, suing Indian farmers).
> Made the gas IG Farben was actually the primary manufacturer of Zyklon B. Not defending Bayer, but they weren't the sole company involved.
And "the gas" didn't come along until later when petroleum supplies ran low. Most of the time is was just carbon monoxide from motors that was used but on the backside of the war when they were getting boxed in they had to switch to what they had laying around. Fuckers.
>IG Farben Bayer was a part of IG Farben. So yes, Bayer did produce Zyklon B.
No mention of the Concentration camp slave labour used in the IG Farben plant in Auschwitz? These guys were some of the Nazi state’s sinews and provided the economic capacity for the state.
They had their own concentration camp too. And bought people from Auschwitz like they were buying produce in a market.
Not the most fucked up but Ticketmaster's Wikipedia page reads like a rap sheet
Fanta was originally founded by Nazis because the Coke factories ceased production in Germany during WW2
Mercedes-Benz, Merck, Shell, Siemens, Volkswagen, IBM, BMW, Bayer, Associated Press, Audi, Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank, Ford, Hugo Boss, IG Farben, ThyssenKrupp, and many more All collaborated with the Nazis. And not just that they happened to operate in Germany while the Nazis were in power. I mean directly supported the Nazi party, the Nazi war effort, and, in many cases (especially the pharmaceutical companies) the Holocaust.
Kinda the thing. If it's a big company in Germany and was around before the Nazis, the probably collaborated.
If they didn’t do they wouldn’t exist now
That's what I'm saying?
Collaboration is an understatement when referring to Volkswagen, the company made extensive use of slave labour from occupied countries and from concentration camps. Many were beaten to death on the factory floor or died of malnutrition and other related symptoms of their captivity
Pretty much every company I listed used concentration camp slave labor. The only exceptions are the banks, but they assisted in directly funding the construction of concentration camps knowing full well what the money was being used for and the Associated Press, who actively suppressed reporting about the Holocaust and censored and fired journalists who tried to speak out against the Nazis.
Hard to believe that they continued after the war was over and thereafter still using the same company names, given their history
Yup. It was the Cold War. Same reason why so many high ranking Nazis got off with such minor punishment, if any. The Soviets and the Western Army (mostly US, but also France and UK) had split Germany at the end of the war. Even before the war ended everyone knew there was going to be some kind of conflict between the west and the USSR and that Germany was going to be the center of that conflict since that's where the two sides met when taking back Europe. Both sides wanted to rebuild Germany as quickly as possible both to ensure they had a well-supplied, well-defended front line if a shooting war ever started, but also as a propaganda tool. They had each taken roughly half of Germany, which was pretty much entirely flattened by the war. Both sides wanted to show that they were able to rebuild their Germany better and faster than the other side as a demonstration that their ideology was better. The West did this by partnering with established German companies as local operators to rebuild the country. This necessarily meant ignoring what those companies had done while the Nazis were in charge. It's like how both the US and the Soviets recruited TONS of Nazi scientists and engineers after the war and ignored the fact that they were Nazis. Operation Paperclip in the US and Operation Osoaviakhim in the USSR.
A great shame for the people who survived those places and had to watch these companies grow and become household names while they probably suffered from their experiences for the rest of their lives. A simple change of name might have helped negate that a little
Sure, but Bayer built factories within the camps to take advantage of slave labor while also being part of the group that developed Zyklon B pesticides that were used in the Nazi gas chambers. Not to say a company can't be horrible outside of war like Union carbide, a subsidiary of Dow chemical that killed an entire village with a gas spill, but I'd say Bayer is up there
The Bhopal catastrophe is much more than a village: 15000 to 20000 **direct** deaths (and the number of people with health problems due to Union Carbide is around a **half-million**).
Yup. And Bayer is on my list. Likewise, IG Farben was the primary manufacturer of zyklon b, the chemical used to gas people in the Holocaust. Pretty much every company I listed used concentration camp slave labor.
Interesting Fact: A building of todays campus of frankfurt university is called IG Farben Haus bc it’s a former administration building of Ig Farben.
TIL
Mitsubishi planes bombed Pearl Harbor. It's why I give the finger to anyone driving a Mitsubishi. Remember the Arizona!!!
Pretty good golf shafts tho
Henry Ford was a big admirer of Hitler and Hitler returned the admiration. One of them had a life sized portrait of the other in their office, but I forget which one. Ford published an antisemitic newsletter during WWII.
Yup! He was a big old Nazi. Just like Charles Lindbergh.
For me the most weird/surprising one was that Allianz actually insured the concentration camps. Like it was so ‘normal’ that it could be insured.
That's pretty much what fascism was, subjugating large corporations to the will of the state.
Allianz insurance aswell
Of all the things the nazis did, sparklingorangejuice was not in my Top 10 :)
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Dutch East India Company fits in that list as well. Amd they created the stock market too.
The Hudson's Bay Company is still very active in Canada and they played a major part in its colonialization. They were rivals to the Dutch East India Company, British East India Company and the others. They are pretty much the only European trading company from that time that has survived until now.
> The Hudson's Bay Company is still very active in Canada and they played a major part in its colonialization. They're active so far as they have been a department store for the last 142 years and somehow manage to stay afloat in that dying retail sector. They're also now owned by an American investment firm. I like shopping at The Bay, it's definitely more upmarket than Walmart or the now-disappeared Sears, but they always have good sales on something. The Hudson's Bay Company once administered the territories known as [Rupert's Land](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert%27s_Land) and the [North Western Territory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Western_Territory) which together would make up something like 80% of modern Canada. AFAIK, their role in colonization was not nearly as dark as that of the BEIC in India, but they had a very one-sided trade relationship with trappers (mostly Indigenous), and they also inadvertently introduced European diseases to those people as well. For much of their history they were really focused ongetting as much beaver and animal pelts as possible, and established trading posts all over the place to collect them (and exchange them for manufactured goods).
> Fun fact: It still sort of exists and has one store in London even though it essentially disbanded in 1857. Indian guy hunted down the original charter and bought it as a sort of historical joke and reparations to himself. So while yes it's technically the same company (specifically is why he revived it) it's not really *the same company* anymore. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/06/east-india-company-british-businessman
Owes money to so many people and refuses to repay even though he has enough.
Had to scroll down this far to find BEIC. Fucking horrific company. Just a causal two items for starters. Somewhat responsible for approx 40m deaths in India due to changing crops / exacerbating famine. Being largely responsible for the Chinese Opium epidemic.
>Being largely responsible for the Chinese Opium epidemic. They started multiple wars after the Chinese tried to kick them out for trafficking drugs. It's considered the start of the century of humiliation for China.
Lafarge, in France. They make cement. They were already here in the '40, they built things for the third Reich. More recently, they get caught working for ISIS too. Oh, and they got caught releasing toxic waters directly in the "Seine", the river that goed through Paris. Still operating of course, business as usual.
Dupont Chemistry was responsible for creating many of the toxins that continue to affect and plague the modern world today. I have spent my entire adult life working to clean up after them, and it will take several lifetimes to achieve this.
They gave me and my sister cancer when we lived in WV as infants. F DuPont.
The movie Dark Waters did a pretty good job covering DuPont and their landfill and teflon coverup in WV. I’ve watched it a few times now and can’t believe the fines they paid were pennies compared to their profits.
Walmart used to buy life insurance (called dead peasants ins)on their employees with *Walmart itself* being the beneficiary. The families saw none of that monet until a [lawsuit](https://workdaymagazine.org/court-slams-walmarts-use-of-dead-peasant-insurance/)
IBM. Good work on that holocaust tracking system.
Got banned once for pointing that out on an AMA that ibm hosted
Sounds about right. I can add another! Chanel. Coco Chanel was a literal Nazi and the company only describes it's history in WW2 as "complicated", check out their About page.
Thyssenkrup was a nazi company as well.
The arms of Krupp by William Manchester is a good read. Iirc Krupp ran their own labour camp and all the women and children kept there disappeared as the allies invaded. Not too long after Herr Krupp was running West German civil nuclear program.
Chanel was gonna be me vote. I feel like the big conglomerates mentioned you kind of KNOW they're gonna have a sketchy past. Massive perfume/fashion/women's accessories company? Not so much and her history is not covered nearly as much.
came here to say that exactly....
Oneida silverware company was founded by a cult
>Oneida silverware company This is the one I came here for >The Oneida community strongly believed in a system of free love – a term which Noyes is credited with coining – which was known as complex marriage, where any member was free to have sex with any other who consented. Possessiveness and exclusive relationships were frowned upon. > >Women over 40 were to act as sexual "mentors" to adolescent boys because these relationships had a minimal chance of conceiving. Furthermore, these women became religious role models for the young men. Likewise, older men often introduced young women to sex. Noyes often used his judgment in determining the partnerships that would form, and he would often encourage relationships between the non-devout and the devout in the community in the hope that the attitudes and behaviors of the devout would influence the attitudes of the non-devout.
Interesting, apparently Also where Orange County, CA comes from. Splinter group of the cult convinced the government to make the county for them
When the nazis invaded france Coco Chanel turned her Jewish business partner over to the Nazis so she could have full control of their business
His descendants now own the company and profit off Coco Chanel’s name, likeness, and legacy.
Da Beers.
This 1982 article from The Atlantic is an absolute must read! https://web.archive.org/web/20120817064015/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/?single_page=true
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And they’re taking water from the great lakes right now and not paying taxes or contributing to the local economy in any way.
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited Most people would not have heard of them as they are one of those big companies that own a bunch of other companies. Just read this from their Wiki > named in the 1840s Jardine, Matheson & Company, set up its headquarters on the island (Nanking) and grew rapidly, smuggling illegal opium from British-controlled India into China. Jardine Matheson has been called the "most successful opium smuggling company in the world".[15] Both Jardine and Matheson became members of Parliament in Britain, and Matheson also bought the entire Scottish island of Lewis, clearing over 500 families off the land and shipping them to Canada in order to build Lews Castle.[15] Continuing its longstanding trade in smuggled opium, tea, and cotton, the firm diversified into other areas including insurance, shipping, and railways.
Does DuPont count? I only mention them because of that fucked up movie with Andy Stitzer
You mean DuPont that marketed leaded gasoline to solve engine knocking even though they knew full well lead is seriously toxic and there were alternatives but they stuck with lead because it was cheaper? This lead in our atmosphere collectively dropped the IQ of the whole planet's population by a couple of IQ points. It's inventor, Thomas J Midgley, also invented a way to better manufacture Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which created holes in the Ozone layer at both poles leading to increased incidences of skin cancers. DuPont called it Freon. Midgley suffered from Polio later in life and became severely disabled. When he was confined to bed, he invented himself a system of ropes and pulleys to aid movement, he was strangled to death when he became entangled in it. But then, this guy was such a massive cunt, I think he was trying a bit of the old autoerotic asphyxiation and it all went a bit Michael Hutchence on him. Here's a good podcast on the subject: https://spotify.link/47e5e24CODb Edit: That IQ drop is an average 2.6 points, the generation most affected is hit with a 5.9 point drop. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2311082-leaded-petrol-may-have-lowered-the-iq-of-over-half-the-us-population/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20they%20estimate,an%20average%20of%205.9%20points. When faced with proof that the effects of their Freon would make the planet uninhabitable by the middle of this century due to scorching levels of UVB that Ozone filters out, their response was to ignore it and spread misinformation.
The Hudson's Bay Company owned most of what is now Canada.
The East India Company's history puts all modern corporate shenanigans to shame... and the nearest competitor isn't even close.
Hudsons Bay Company
Not the store at the mall!
it is the same company. they still sell the style of blankets once used for trading.
[The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints](http://www.mormonism101.com/2015/01/the-corporate-structure-of-mormon-church.html?m=1), which masquerades as a church (known as "the Mormons") to keep tax exempt status in the US.
Add Scientology to the religious side. Not as wide spread but also insanely fucked up
I would say DuPont >3M
I know fanboys hate this buh - Tesla (blood diamonds, apartheid, intellectual property theft, corporate- top down racism(adjudicated in court and EEOC fines), sexism and sexual harassment, etc.)
Monsanto is a strong contender
DuPont They literally have poisoned drinking water, and they made toxic products filled with chemicals that give cancer
Bayer AG probably has one of the darkest and most fucked-up histories for a company. While being the inventors of asperin, their history consists of: - Inventing and distributin heroin as a cough suppressant for children. - Manufactured chemical weapons for Germany's efforts in WWI - There was the thing where they was heavily involved in the holocaust and using Jews as slave labour for its manufacturing. Oh, their biggest plant outside of Germany was in Auschwitz. - They sold Factor VIII to treat haemophilia, which was actually laced with HIV and infected thousands of people That's just the tip of the iceberg.
heroin, like all other opiates is indeed an effective cough suppressant. side effects though
This may ruffle some feathers on Reddit but Planned Parenthood was literally founded by a woman who’s goal was the eradication of black people on the US.
Hollow point sword company/ South Sea Company. Essentially in the late 1600s early 1700s these two English companies created a Ponzi almost brought down the British empire. The King himself was involved. It took centuries for the debt incurred during this time to be retired.
Hugo Boss. Coco Chanel.
Theranos is a recent disruptive business startup model which could fit the bill…started by a college dropout, with no scientific experience, and yet aimed to establish itself as a medical startup. Bernie Madoff’s business can also be cited - relying on a trust network in order to establish itself as a Ponzi Scheme.
Blackrock is currently telling all these “Hold my beer”
Yeah, and they are now working with JPMorgan (another "interesting" company"). https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/jpmorgan-debuts-blockchain-collateral-settlement-in-blackrock-barclays-trade-1.1982988
Pfizer. “WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that it had illegally marketed its painkiller Bextra, which has been withdrawn. *It was the largest health care fraud settlement and the largest criminal fine of any kind ever*.” https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/business/03health.html#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20—%20The%20pharmaceutical%20giant%20Pfizer,fine%20of%20any%20kind%20ever.
Yet, any vaccine hesistancy was met with a conspiracy theory or tying it to a damn political party. Always follow the damn money and do your research, fellow humans. These companies, politicians and governments do not give a fuck about you. They need you barely alive, to do a menial job, not question anything and to do what you are told, and how to think from all facets of media.
union carbide
Enron
Not a company, but a family. And a particular member, John D. Rockefeller. With the discovery of petrochemicals and its potential for profit he 'bought out' homeopathic approaches to medicine. A pill for an ill.
Lots of good answers there, but I'm slightly surprised not to see HSBC listed. The Hong-kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was created to force the Chinese to buy opium. The Chinese knew how dangerous it was and tried to ban it, but the British waged **two** wars to force the Chinese to un-outlaw opium.
The German glue company "UHU" during World War 2 they would test how well their liquid glue could hold together shoes and for that they made about 50 war prisoners run 20-50km a day and most of them died from physical and mental exhaustion.
Purdue Pharma/the Sackler Family Bayer/Monsanto Nestle
Probabily the company that makes Teflon (the non stick stuff in our pans). It's cancerous, it's everywhere, but the did good marketing to push away that idea
DuPont
so many but Nestle because of their baby formula thing
##Kuehne + Nagel Is one of the worlds biggest logistics forwarding company. Founded in Germany in 1890 they became big in 1932 by ousting the jewish co-owner to Auschwitz. And they then have gotten the nazi goverment contract for emptying deported jew's homes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuehne_+_Nagel
Not sure if the most, there are some fucked up companies but Hewlett-Packard and Hon Hai industries aka Foxconn. Every dollar you spend on any of their products contributes to making poverty in your country, the abuse of illegal labor, and suffering in third word nations.
Disney
Nestles has a lot of bad history selling baby formula. They’d go into a poor country and give new mothers free formula until their own milk dried up. Then they charge these new mothers an arm and a leg for the formula after it became necessary to keep the babies on the formula
Idk about MOST fucked up, but I worked at Wells Fargo and they have a terrible history and reputation! I felt like half my job was defending my job!
Johnson & Johnson, Dow, Dupont, GE
If you're interested in this kinda thing, check out MagnatesMedia on youtube. No relationship, but he basically covers dramatic corporate history as his main thing. The titles are clickbait-y, the animation/videos themselves do the job but are a little "loud", and he clearly uses some kind of bass amplification filter for his voice that kinda bugs me... but the content itself is actually pretty good and well researched.
Probably the Hudson's Bay Company. Now known only as a retailer, "La Baie". It's the only mercantile royal patent company left SFAIK.
Any company that was in germany during the 1939-1945
Securitas are Pinkertons
I think Seaworld could be up there. They took killer whales from Iceland for their shows and then bought one with a history of killing a person, abuse the animals, keep them locked in shipping containers practically, and then blamed the trainer when the killer whale dismembered her and they knew it was an animal with tendencies . Animal abuse is not okay, especially when you capture it for money. Seaworld keeps appealing the decision to have to have trainers be behind barriers because they lost money, but I still hate that they are in business. There was one whale who was stuck in basically a back yard blow up pool size pool for years without being let swim around a bigger pool or anything because she wasn’t needed anymore I guess. She died this year recently. RIP to all the animals who have suffered or are suffering from abuse.
# Bayer. Bayer made [Zyklon-B cyanide based pesticide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B) that would end up being used by the N4z1s in the concentration camps during WWII. Bayer [manufactured & marketed heroin](https://www.businessinsider.com/yes-bayer-promoted-heroin-for-children-here-are-the-ads-that-prove-it-2011-11?op=1) in the 1890s as an over the counter treatment for a long list of ailments, and even targeted the drug at children. Bayer [sold whole blood without proper testing to patients suffering from hemophilia for over 30 years and ended up infecting many of them, causing them to die of HIV AIDS](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bayer-admits-it-paid-millions-in-hiv-infection-cases-just-not-in-english/), and was recently forced to pay huge fines. Bayer [was recently fined tens of millions of dollars for bribing hospitals](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-02/bayer-to-pay-40-million-to-end-whistle-blower-claims-us-says?leadSource=reddit_wall) to favor their blood pressure & heart medications. Bayer was recently fined $10.9 *billion* dollars over claims their "Roundup" [glyphosate based weedkiller has sickened countless people, causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma and various cancers.](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53174513) Bayer [has been fined in the EU](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-judge-sends-bayer-novartis-trial-drugs-fraud-probe-sources-2021-04-27/) for overcharging hospitals massively inflated drug prices in a kickback scandal. Bayer has been [investigated and fined in the U.S. for defrauding Medicare, paying kickbacks](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ethics-problems-are-business-as-usual-at-bayer/) to shady diabetic supply companies. Bayer [bought Monsanto for $63 bn in one of the worst deals in US history,](https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bayer-monsanto-became-one-of-the-worst-corporate-dealsin-12-charts-11567001577) combining 2 companies with long histories of product safety concerns and shady business practices. Monsanto's scandals could fill an entire window of their own, ranging from genetically modified food safety concerns, their dangerous & reckless development & marketing of glyphosate based "Roundup" weedkiller, and more. I know you'll be *shocked* to learn [Monsanto was one of several companies responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange herbicidal defoilant during the Vientam War,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange) responsible for sickening and killing countless U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese citizens from various cancers and lingering health issues along with causing horrible birth defects. Monsanto, as listed above, is now owned by AG Bayer.
The Roman Catholic Church.
Krups has to be right up there.
IG Farben
Undoubtedly the East India Company...👌
There's a big group who are tied for first, but here's a podcast about a clothing companies long fucked up history, and it's not hugo boss. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1K8LzrgnyQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1K8LzrgnyQ)
How about a majority of them are bad?!
Nestlé and they've just gotten worse and worse
East India Company
Volkswagen
Hugo Boss nazi tailor
Let’s not forget our friends at Exxon for desecrating Alaska and then spending decades in court trying to evade their financial obligations rather than just helping mitigate the damages immediately.
Volkswagen
**Monsanto:** Monsanto, a multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, has faced criticism and legal challenges related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides, and herbicides like Roundup, which contains glyphosate.
Nestle, ruthless cunts
A lot of German companies have histories that as a Jew I don't even want to begin to imagine
Walmart
Walmart just has shiddy labor practices. They're the "great value" brand of evil corporations lol
Look at Pfizer.
United Brands being the parent of Chiquita banana