Phil Mattera

Migrant Intimidation Masquerading as Consumer Protection - Dirt Diggers Digest It came as quite a surprise to see a recent Justice Department press release announcing that its Civil Rights Division had secured a $68 million settlement from a real estate developer accused of targ...

A $68 million enforcement action against a predatory lender by the DOJ and the Texas Attorney General is really about something very different. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8030

Making America Corrupt Again - Dirt Diggers Digest Among the many reasons why the people of Greenland would be better off sticking with Denmark rather than giving in to Donald Trump’s pressure campaign is the matter of public integrity. Transparency I...

A new ranking of government corruption around the world scores the United States worse than ever under Trump 2.0. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8025

Real and Fake Solutions to Inflated Drug Prices - Dirt Diggers Digest High prescription drug prices are one of the main components of the affordability problem that continues to afflict all but the most affluent Americans. Public officials are addressing the issue, but ...

Prosecuting pharmaceutical companies for price fixing will do a lot more for drug affordability than Trump's dubious discount plan. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8021

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes: HSBC paid $312 million to resolve allegations of dividend tax fraud in France. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority fined Saxo Bank $49 million for anti-money-laundering deficiencies.
violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

The DOJ’s Empty Boast - Dirt Diggers Digest Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, the Justice Department has expended much of its energy bringing dubious cases against the president’s political foes and propping up the administration’s di...

Adopting Trump-style exaggeration, the Justice Department is giving the false impression it is aggressively prosecuting corporations for foreign bribery. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8017

A False Claim About False Claims A False Claim About False Claims - Dirt Diggers Digest When the Trump Administration issues a press release about regulation, it is usually to boast about the number of rules it is trying to abolish or to announce a reduction in a corporate penalty impose...

Why is a regulation-bashing administration bragging about--and even exaggerating--its success in pursuing one type of enforcement action against corporations? dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8010

Unequal Justice Unequal Justice - Dirt Diggers Digest These are strange days at the Department of Justice. Attorney General Pam Bondi seems completely willing to do the bidding of Donald Trump, yet there have been press reports that he is unhappy she has...

Trump's DOJ is still prosecuting corporate fraud but with a lot less antipathy than it directs against supposed immigrant fraudsters. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/8003

A new feature of Violation Tracker shows most significant cases added to the database as part of the latest monthly update: violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/recent-penal...

Turning Regulators into the Anti-DEI Police During the first year of Trump 2.0, most federal regulatory agencies have experienced savage budget cuts, deep staffing reductions, and abandonment of their core mission. The Consumer Financial Protec...

The DOJ division responsible for prosecuting fraud by government contractors is now investigating companies for the supposed crime of seeking diversity in their hiring and promotion policies. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7990

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes: Australia's ANZ Bank was fined US$250 million for "widespread misconduct and systemic risk failures" and the EU fined X $140 million for breaching transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act.
violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

The 2025 Corporate Rap Sheet The regulatory enforcement system is one of the many things the second Trump Administration has thrown into chaos. The DOGE assault decimated staffing at many agencies. The Consumer Financial Protecti...

A review of regulatory enforcement in 2025 finds disarray at the federal level but a more encouraging picture with state/local regulators and private litigation. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7953

The Supreme Court's apparent intention to give Trump absolute control over independent agencies will serve to undermine their regulatory mission. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7948

Can Federal Corporate Investments Be Used for Good? Donald Trump takes pleasure in getting institutions of all kinds to bend to his will. That includes major corporations. In a move that contradicts the usual deference the public sector in the U.S. sho...

Trump's move to take ownership stakes in companies opens up the possibility the federal government could address corporate misconduct from the inside. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7944

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes a US$134 million fine imposed on TotalEnergies in France for participating in a fuel cartel a $51 million penalty against JPMorgan Chase in Germany for deficiencies in its anti-money-laundering practices. violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

Is the DOJ Serious About Investigating Beef Price-Fixing? Apparently shaken by the Democratic gains in this month’s elections, Donald Trump has changed his tune on the economy. He still tries to get us to believe everything is marvelous, but at the same time...

Trump's ideas for dealing with affordability seem to be gimmicks that will accomplish little. Is there one exception? dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7940

The Other Sins of the Big Greenhouse Gas Emitters As the COP30 climate talks take place in Brazil, the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has just published its latest list of the corporations that contrib...

The latest list of the biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters is dominated by companies that also have plenty of other stains on their record. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7931

Taking Aim at Whistleblowers Everyone in the Trump Administration seems hellbent on giving the president as much power as possible over nearly everything. Congressional Republicans are playing along. Things are less clear in t...

A MAGA-friendly appellate court judge is seeking to block whistleblowers from filing False Claims Act lawsuits exposing fraud by federal contractors. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7924

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes a $1 billion fine imposed on ENI and other motor fuel companies for colluding on prices and a fine brought by Brazil's Public Ministry of Labor against JBS for failing to provide heat breaks for workers. violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

A New Climate Denialism? For decades, federal and state laws have required corporations to disclose information about their activities that affect the public. ExxonMobil is now asking a federal court to allow it to ignore one...

ExxonMobil no longer denies the reality of climate change, but it doesn't want to admit it has played a major role in causing the problem. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7919

Banking and Genocide Banks try to disavow responsibility for the misconduct of their clients, but that position has suffered a serious setback in a court in New York. A federal jury has just returned what is being called ...

A federal jury's $20 million award to several victims of the genocidal practices of the regime of Omar al-Bashir in the Darfur region of Sudan could lead to the payment of billions in damages by banks that did business with that regime. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7911

Exxon’s Bogus Shareholder Democracy When thinking of the leading proponents of democracy, ExxonMobil is not a name that comes to mind. Yet the oil giant is using the rhetoric of democracy to promote a plan that will actually consolidate...

ExxonMobil is leading a big business effort to weaken shareholder activism and consolidate the power of management. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7904

The Ellisons Prosper by Aligning with Trump Numerous rich people are getting richer thanks to their connections to Donald Trump, but perhaps no one has gained as much as Larry Ellison and his son David. They control what is becoming one of the ...

Larry and David Ellison are parlaying their Trump ties to create an enormous media empire that could serve as a MAGA megaphone. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7898

The FTC Bucks the MAGA Anti-Regulatory Crusade The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in limbo. The Environmental Protection Agency has been turned into a fossil fuel cheerleader. The Securities and Exchange Commission has drastically scaled ...

Unlike the rest of the Trump Administration, the Federal Trade Commission has continued to go after corporate abuses. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7895

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes a $3 billion fine against Google by the EU for anti-competitive ad practices and a $30 million fine against VW in Brazil for allowing slave-like labor conditions at a cattle ranch it used to own. violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

Dr. Trump’s Dubious Medical Advice Among the many unusual things Donald Trump has done in recent days is to make us feel some sympathy for a major drug company. Kenvue Inc., producer of Tylenol, had to stand by and watch as Trump used ...

There may or may not be a link between Tylenol and autism, but a reliable answer won't come from the White House. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7889

Another Anti-Woke Charade For the vast majority of the U.S. population not involved in shareholder activism, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. are far from household names. Yet these two firms domin...

Texas is obsessed with stamping out what remains of DEI and ESG in the corporate world. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7885

Tough Talk on Deceptive Drug Ads With the announcement of a crackdown on deceptive advertising by pharmaceutical companies, RFK Jr. is once again showing that he may not be a complete crackpot. At his apparent direction, the Food and...

The Trump-JFK Jr. move against deceptive drug ads sounds good, but it is unclear it will amount to anything. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7880

Serving One Special Interest Presidential administrations usually lean in one of two directions: they tend to be more pro-business or more pro-labor. Some will emphasize deregulation, free trade, and corporate tax breaks. Others ...

Trump Administration policies are not consistently pro-business or pro-worker, but they always work to the benefit of the Trump family. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7875

The latest update to Violation Tracker Global includes a $330 million settlement by JPMorgan relating to the 1MDB corruption scandal in Malaysia and a $4 million fine paid by Armani in Italy for misleading statements about its social responsibility practices. violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org

What’s Behind Rising Beef Prices? Those who enjoy a breakfast of steak and eggs are feeling better about half of their plate. Egg prices have come down sharply in the past year. But now beef prices are the problem, soaring well beyond...

Along with drought in western states and Trump's politically motivated tariffs against Brazil, corporate collusion among the big meat processors has contributed to soaring beef prices. dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/7869