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Massive Scandals Everyone Forgot

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We can access breaking news instantly, but stories that once sparked massive outrage quickly fade from discussion. Some past scandals don't get the attention they would today, and many are forgotten when the next big story breaks. Despite this, the wrongdoing by individuals, corporations, and politicians that made global news had a lasting impact. This list highlights the biggest scandals that everyone seems to have forgotten. Vote up the ones that should have had a more significant long-term impact.

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  • 1
    The Turpin Children Endured Years Of Confinement And Abuse, Only To Relive The Experience In Foster Care

    David and Louise Turpin were each sentenced to 25 years in prison. They held captive and tortured their 13 children, aged 2 to 29. Six Turpin children entered foster care after the trial. The children relived their horrific experiences.The Turpin children relived their horrific experiences.The Turpin Children Endured Years Of Confinement And Abuse, Then Relived It In Foster Care.

    The foster family slapped the children with shoes. They physically abused them. The family forced them to overeat and ingest their vomit. They encouraged the children to commit suicide. ChildNet Youth and Family Services, the agency that placed the children in their second abusive home, knew what was happening. The agency did nothing to stop it.

    Before the Turpin children entered the home, ChildNet employees warned the placement was a bad idea. The family had previously abused other children. The agency ignored employee advice, letting the children face more abuse. Welfare agents never entered the home during visits.

    They interviewed the children outside. The foster mother, father, and adult daughter watched and filmed the meetings inside.Two separate lawsuits.The Turpin children testified. They repeatedly told ChildNet agents about their abusive environment. Agents ignored them and silenced them.

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    🔥 385 up · 13 down▲ 2 above editor
  • 2
    The FBI Was Aware Of The Abuse In US Women’s Gymnastics

    Elite gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, and McKayla Maroney first reported sexual abuse. They experienced this under the care of former athletic trainer and osteopath Larry Nassar.Larry Nassar.The women reported the abuse to the FBI in 2015. FBI Special Agent Michael Langeman and his supervisor, Jay Abbott, did not take the claims seriously. They did not move forward with the investigation.FBI Special Agent Michael Langeman and his supervisor, Jay Abbott, minimized the trauma the women experienced.They falsified statements the women gave about their abuses. They let the case remain largely uninvestigated for 15 months.

    The four athletes testified to the US Senate in 2021. They were outraged by the treatment their cases received. Advocates asserted that...More than 120 gymnasts may have been abused by Nassar, who now serves a life sentence for his crimes.The FBI knew about the abuse in US Women’s Gymnastics. The Justice Department did not charge the former agents who silenced the women through their inaction.

    The FBI fired Langeman two weeks before the 2021 hearing. His supervisor, Abbott, had already resigned. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco chose not to attend the hearing, adding to the frustration.

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  • 3
    The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Was The Largest Such Spill In History

    In April 2010, the oil rig exploded.Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon sank in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico.The Deepwater Horizon oil spill hit the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven oil rig workers died in the accident. This caused the largest oil spill in history. For eighty-seven days, four million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged rig until July 15. The US government sued BP Exploration & Production in district court. Other defendants considered responsible for the disaster also faced lawsuits.

    The settlement required BP Exploration & Production to pay up to $8.8 billion for natural resource damages and a $5.5 billion Clean Water Act penalty. Ten years later, in 2022, environmental scientists warned thatMany shared risks exist.caused the Deepwater Horizon spill and its damage to wildlife and the Gulf Coast ecosystem still exist.

  • 4
    Wells Fargo Bank Opened Fake Accounts On Behalf Of Its Customers

    Before the 2016 scandal, Wells Fargo paid employees using a sales-driven compensation plan. When the bank raised sales goals to meet quotas, employees opened millions of checking and savings accountsfor customers without their knowledge or consent.Employees used customer contact information on forms to open accounts and moved money from existing accounts into the new ones so bank patrons would not see the actions.

    Customers later noticed charges and fees for accounts they did not request or know about. After enough customers complained about the bank's practices, government agencies fined Wells Fargo a total of $185 million$185 million.This happened in 2016.

    Wells Fargo then issued over $2.7 billion in civil and criminal lawsuits over its employees' fraud. John Stumpf, Wells Fargo's chief executive, resigned. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a US Department of the Treasury bureau, banned him from working in a bank permanently and fined many Wells Fargo executives for their part in the scheme.

    Since the deception became public, the bank claims it changed its compensation plan to focus on customers, not sales.

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    🔥 233 up · 7 down▲ 1 above editor

    Also ranks #1 on The Worst Banks in the World · #1 on Best Bank for Student Loans · #4 on Best Banks for Teens

  • 5
    The NYC Mayor's Wife Misplaced More Than $850 Million In A Failed Mental Health Project

    Chirlane McCray, Bill de Blasio's former New York mayor's wife, announced plans to create the ThriveNYC mental health project.in 2015. The program included 54 initiatives to help the city's mentally ill citizens. McCray got $850 million to fund the project.

    However, in 2019, she could not account for any moneyshe received for the project. ThriveNYC kept few financial records for its first three years, and the mental health goals McCray set at the start were mostly missed. Reporters asked ThriveNYC for a budget or spending log, but they could not provide one.

    New York City Hall and the Budget Office showed different budget numbers. City Hall reported $594 million; the Budget Office reported $816 million. Despite the program failing to track taxpayer money spent or show real community impact, organizers expanded the grant to $1 billion.

    In 2021, de Blasio and McCray rebranded ThriveNYC.The de Blasio administration spent $1.2 billion on the failed project. They made the program a permanent New York fixture by moving its headquarters to City Hall and establishing the Office of Community Mental Health.

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    🔥 223 up · 12 down▲ 3 above editor
  • 6
    The Panama Papers Exposed The Offshore Finance Industry

    In 2016, over 350 reporters from 80 nations worked together. They used their investigative skills to publish. The Panama Papers belong in Massive Scandals Everyone Forgot., A Pulitzer Prize-winning document leak. The report showed 140 celebrities, politicians, drug dealers, and other elite members used shady business moves. They hid wealth using tax havens and hard-to-trace companies.

    More than 11.5 million documents formed the basis. These included passports, bank statements, and emails.The Panama Papers belong in Massive Scandals Everyone Forgot.The Panama Papers also exposed how the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca aided a 40-year cover-up.Shell corporationsThese used to hide asset ownership. The leak revealed the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world political leaders. It also showed how Russian President Vladimir Putin brought in more than $2 billion through shadow companies. The prime minister of Iceland, the king of Saudi Arabia, the Azerbaijani president's children, and the prime minister of Pakistan were involved, plus 33 companies blacklisted by the US government.Vladimir Putin ushered more than $2 billion through shadow companies.Shadow companies aided the cover-up. The prime minister of Iceland, the king of Saudi Arabia, the Azerbaijani president's children, and the prime minister of Pakistan were also involved. Thirty-three companies blacklisted by the US government were also involved.

    A source nicknamed “John Doe” leaked the original report. This caused immediate protests in many countries. Hundreds of investigations followed, and many government officials were removed. However, this data leak had a cost.This data leak came with a price.Investigators who exposed the truth faced danger. Six years after the release, John Doe stated he still fears for his life because Russian officials publicly announced plans to murder the source. Two journalists, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak, already died exposing the massive secret.

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  • 7
    Ticketmaster Bought Its Own Tickets To Scalp Out At Thousands Of Dollars A Piece

    Undercover reporters for the Ticketmaster in 2018 discovered the truth.Toronto Star.And CBC News, posing as scalpers, found Ticketmaster routinely...posing as scalpers found Ticketmaster routinely sold tickets underground via an invite-only platform before taking a profit. TradeDesk, the Ticketmaster-owned company, charged extra fees for its pricier resale tickets, on top of fees from the main site sales.Named TradeDesk, the Ticketmaster-owned company charged extra fees for its more expensive resale tickets in addition to the fees it collected from the original sales from the main site.

    Ticketmaster ignored criminal scalping by its sales reps and employees. Despite setting up a strict "buyer abuse" division to watch for suspicious activity from non-employees, the company intentionally ignored criminal scalping. In 2022, Ticketmaster and its merged company, Live Nation,faced a lawsuit in California's federal court for their offenses.The judge ruled for Ticketmaster. Ticket buyers had initially agreed to handle complaints through private arbitration when they bought tickets on the platform.

  • 8
    The McDonald’s Monopoly Game Was Rigged And Taken For Millions

    Before 1995, McDonald's ran Monopoly contests. Jerome Jacobson, a former police officer working in security for Simon Marketing, guarded and moved the winning peel-off stickers. He carried them in a briefcase with a tamper-proof seal and gave them to packaging centers across the country.He personally applied the winning game pieces.He put the game pieces onto French fry cartons and paper drink cups sent to specific McDonald's spots, determined by a randomizing computer program.

    In 1995, McDonald's raised the prize winnings to $1 million. Jacobson felt a strong urge to steal profits. To avoid the female auditor who followed him, he visited men's restrooms at airports on the way to packaging centers. There, he opened the game pieces, took them, put back non-winning stickers, and resealed the case.

    Jacobson could not claim the money.He used friends and family to find "winners." They paid tens of thousands of dollars for winning game pieces, which sometimes paid hundreds of thousands of dollars—up to $1 million. Jacobson made recruits claim their earnings in different states to avoid suspicion from McDonald's and the FBI.

    However, many Monopoly winners claimed prizes in Georgia (where Jacobson lived) and Florida (where he was a police officer). In 2000, the FBI traced a $1 million winner from 1996 back to Jacobson, revealing the theft. William Fisher, the father-in-law of a man Jacobson met at the Atlanta airport, drove to New Hampshire for his winnings, but his home was in Jacksonville, FL.

    The investigation uncovered over 50 other people involved in mail fraud.Jacobson received a sentence of 37 months in prison and a $12.5 million restitution charge.He served 37 months in prison and paid a $12.5 million restitution.

  • 9
    DuPont Dumped Teflon Into Rivers, Poisoning 97% Of The US

    From the 1950s to the early 2000s, DuPont used Teflon, a synthetic polytetrafluoroethylene, to make non-stick pans, cosmetics, and stain-resistant carpets. DuPont kept making these substances and disposing of waste in nearby rivers despite early warnings about the chemicals' danger.Teflon is polytetrafluoroethylene.DuPont continued manufacturing the substances and disposing of waste in nearby rivers despite early warnings that its chemicals were dangerous.The contamination of soil and drinking water across the US now affects 43 states and the drinking water of 19 million people.Contamination of soil and drinking water across the US now affects 43 states and the drinking water of 19 million people. Medical tests show about 97% of Americans have per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, ingredients in Teflon, in their bloodstream.

    PFAS are called "forever chemicals."" because they do not break down in the body.Even small exposure causes health problems like autoimmune diseases, thyroid issues, cancer, birth defects, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, higher liver enzymes, and a reduced response to vaccines. At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency did not regulate PFAS chemicals.

    DuPont restructured its business to avoid huge money penalties after exposure from its dump sites surfaced. In 2015, the company put most of the blame on The Chemours Company, a newer firm in DuPont's chemical business that shareholders took over. DuPont spokespeople even admitted to this.DuPont admitted to...NBC News reported this.The company's emergence, the creation of Corteva, Inc., and the rebranding of DowDuPont into DuPont served to escape the environmental and legal liabilities from the scandal.

    As of March 2020, DuPont paid at least $400 million in lawsuits about PFAS. In December 2021, the EPA announced it would begin monitoring PFAS in drinking water.NBC News began monitoring PFAS in drinking water.understand its side effects.

  • 10
    Hyundai's Alabama Plant May Have Employed Close To 50 Underage Workers

    On February 3, 2022, a young Guatemalan immigrant went missing from her Alabama home. Area officials learned when they investigated her disappearance that she and her two brothers were involved.She and her two brothers faced issues., ages 12 and 15, worked at the SMART auto supplier plant in Luverne. This revealed child labor allegations at the company, which supplied parts for Hyundai's Montgomery manufacturing plant since 2003.

    Hyundai representatives denied hiring children in an interview withThe Wall Street Journal covered this., journalists from Reuters reported that area police, the family of the three underaged workers, and eight former employees could confirm the accusations.The Wall Street Journal could confirm the accusations.One former employee stated close to 50 children worked shifts at the factory during his time there.

    Police in the Guatemalan family's adopted home, about a 45-mile drive from the SMART plant, lack jurisdiction to check the parts factory for child labor violations. However, they notified the state attorney general's office, and Alabama's Department of Labor said it would work with the US Department of Labor to investigate.

  • 11
    Johnson & Johnson Knew Its Baby Powder Contained Asbestos And Hid It From The Public For Decades

    From 1972 to the early 2000s, Johnson & Johnson did not tell the FDA that tests confirmed its findings.Talc-based baby powder contained asbestos.. These substances often occur together in the ground and can easily mix when they are mined. A 1999 request by a Lumberton, TX, woman and her lawyer for asbestos test results for the product brought the link between baby powder and diseases like mesothelioma and ovarian cancer under review.

    Johnson & Johnson first refused, and the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence. Over the years, the company bought a huge lawsuit involving 11,700 plaintiffs claiming they became critically ill from asbestos in the talc powder. Eventually, courts forced Johnson & Johnson to release internal reports, company memos, and confidential documents.

    Documents showed the truth: the company often found its baby powder tested for small amounts of asbestos. Doctors, mine managers, scientists, executives, and lawyers stressed how to fix the issue. Still, the company kept making the product and sold it publicly. As of May 9, 2022,Over 40,000 lawsuits have been filed.Johnson & Johnson claims its product is safe and plans to sell it elsewhere. The company formed LTL Management LLC to stop more lawsuits and personal claims; this entity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after forming.

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    🔥 144 up · 2 down▼ 7 below editor

    Also ranks #2 on Toiletries Companies List · #6 on Best Baby Brands · #7 on All Johnson & Johnson Brands

  • 12
    South Korea’s First Female President Was Impeached Partly Due To Ties To A Cult

    Many politicians face moral failure by joining corrupt deals or cheating on their marriage. South Korea's former President Park Geun-hye (in office February 2013 - March 2017) faced impeachment partly because ofher links to a religious cult leader.Critics claimed this figure had a "Rasputin-like" grip on the leader.

    Park's adviser, Choi Soon-sil, is the daughter of the founder of theChurch of Eternal Life.Park Geun-hye merged Buddhism, Christianity, and Cheondoism (an indigenous Korean religion). Though she held no office, title, or secret clearance, Park gave Choi major political power as president. Park allowed Choi to edit presidential speeches, attend state briefings, and offer input on political appointments in the South Korean government. Choi also used her connection with the president to scare large corporations intogiving around $70 millionto her favored non-profit charities.

    Choi's list of actions against the government and former President Park's approval of her activities came out when a South Korean TV station got Choi's "discarded" laptop and shared the findings. This sparked huge protests across the nation, leading to Park's impeachment and removal from office in March 2017.

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