Political Influence
Conduct Screen Corporate Misconduct
Documented use of political donations, lobbying, or regulatory capture to shield harmful practices from oversight — includes dark money contributions, revolving door hiring of former regulators, and coordinated campaigns to weaken industry-specific regulations. The test is whether the political spending serves to protect conduct that would otherwise face enforcement, not ordinary corporate advocacy. Distinct from corruption (which covers bribery) and climate_policy (which covers lobbying specifically against climate regulation).
20 companies currently excluded under this screen
Excluded Companies (20 total)
Showing 20 of 20 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| MO | Altria Group | Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, maintains one of the most extensive corporate lobbying operations in the United States, specifically structured to shield its tobacco business from public health regulations and litigation. Each year, Altria Client Services files more than 400 reports disclosing state-level lobbying activities and expenses. This political machinery is complemented by strategic political contributions; for example, Altria and its subsidiary RAI were found to have violated Montana campaign finance law by failing to timely report as an incidental committee opposing a tobacco tax initiative in 2018. The company’s political strategy extends beyond direct lobbying to include the strategic use of philanthropy. Internal documents, as cited in public health research, show Philip Morris explicitly linked charitable contributions to government affairs, using donations as a tool to oppose public health policies. Furthermore, Altria and its peers have a documented history of using the political and legal system to obstruct accountability. In 2006, a federal court found Altria and other major tobacco companies in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act for a decades-long conspiracy to deceive the public about the health risks of smoking. The company continues to engage in litigation, such as *Altria Group, Inc. v. Good*, to preempt state-level consumer protection lawsuits, arguing for federal supremacy to nullify claims of fraudulent marketing. |
| KO | Coca-Cola Company (The) | Coca-Cola spent $4.93 million on federal lobbying in 2024 and $3.48 million through the first half of 2025, according to OpenSecrets filings. The company's PAC contributed $1.37 million to candidates in the 2024 election cycle. These figures represent only Coca-Cola's direct federal expenditures and exclude the company's substantial funding of the American Beverage Association, which acts as the industry's primary political vehicle at the state and local level. The state-level spending is where scale becomes clear. In 2018 Coca-Cola contributed nearly half of the more than $20 million raised by the "Yes! To Affordable Groceries" coalition to pass Washington state's Initiative 1634, which preempted local governments from enacting new taxes on groceries including sugared beverages. In California, the ABA coerced state legislators into passing a soda tax preemption bill through 2030 by threatening to place a draconian supermajority tax initiative on the November ballot if legislators refused. Coca-Cola spent $5.4 million on federal lobbying in 2018 alone during the peak of these campaigns. Similar preemption efforts succeeded in Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, where beverage industry lobbyists inserted language into unrelated legislation blocking local sugar-sweetened beverage taxes. |
| LVS | Las Vegas Sands Corp. | Las Vegas Sands Corporation has a documented history of using its financial influence to shape policy in its favor. The company operates a corporate political action committee, Sands PAC, which makes contributions to federal candidates. More significantly, its late founder and controlling shareholder, Sheldon Adelson, was one of the largest individual political donors in U.S. history, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars primarily to Republican candidates and causes. This spending was contemporaneous with the company's efforts to lobby against online gambling, which it viewed as a competitive threat to its brick-and-mortar casino business. This political activity occurred alongside a federal investigation into the company's compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In 2017, Las Vegas Sands Corp. agreed to pay a $6.96 million criminal penalty to resolve the government's inquiry into its activities in unspecified countries. The Securities and Exchange Commission had also instituted cease-and-desist proceedings against the company in 2016 related to these compliance failures. This pattern demonstrates the use of financial influence—both through campaign contributions and, as alleged by federal investigators, potentially improper payments abroad—to advance and shield its business operations. |
| JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | Johnson & Johnson spent $8.25 million on federal lobbying in 2024, according to OpenSecrets. The company's political action committee distributed $519,500 to federal candidates in the 2023-2024 cycle, with total PAC contributions reaching $1.76 million including state-level disbursements. These expenditures fund a lobbying operation focused on drug pricing, regulatory access, and patent protection. The lobbying apparatus has been deployed against direct public interest. In July 2023, Johnson & Johnson sued the Biden administration to block Medicare drug price negotiations authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing the program violated the First and Fifth Amendments. The company's blood thinner Xarelto was among the first ten drugs selected for negotiation due to its position as one of the most costly Medicare Part D drugs. Johnson & Johnson also used patent-stacking strategies on its blockbuster immunology drug Stelara, acquiring patents a decade after the drug's original approval that were specific to biosimilar manufacturing processes unrelated to producing Stelara itself. Public Citizen documented how Johnson & Johnson leveraged these secondary patents to delay U.S. biosimilar competition until 2025, years after lower-cost alternatives became available in other countries. |
| COIN | Coinbase Global, Inc. | Coinbase contributed over $75 million to the Fairshake PAC in the 2024 election cycle, making it the single largest corporate funder of a super PAC. Fairshake deployed $170 million total and achieved a 91% success rate on backed candidates. The crypto industry collectively spent $245 million — nearly half of all corporate dollars in the 2024 election. Coinbase specifically funded the $40 million campaign to defeat Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, the industry's most vocal critic. In January 2025, Coinbase added Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita, Obama strategist David Plouffe, and former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to its advisory council. Former Coinbase CLO Brian Brooks became Acting Comptroller of the Currency and issued interpretive letters directly benefiting Coinbase's business model. Armstrong cheered the dismantling of the CFPB — the agency that had received 7,775 complaints against Coinbase — calling it "unconstitutional" despite a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling affirming its constitutionality. The SEC dropped its enforcement case against Coinbase with prejudice in February 2025, after the election Coinbase helped fund. |
| CVX | Chevron Corporation | Chevron Corporation has engaged in a documented pattern of using the legal and political system to shield itself from accountability for environmental harm. This is most prominently illustrated by its decades-long litigation concerning oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Following a $9.5 billion judgment against it in Ecuadorian courts, Chevron pursued a retaliatory racketeering case against the plaintiffs' lawyer, Steven Donziger, which resulted in his criminal contempt conviction and house arrest. Legal observers, including human rights groups, have cited this case as an example of using judicial pressure and political influence to evade liability. Furthermore, Chevron is a consistent and significant participant in political lobbying, regularly ranking among the top spenders in the oil and gas sector. Its lobbying efforts have historically focused on opposing climate regulations, supporting fossil fuel subsidies, and influencing energy policy. This political engagement functions to protect and prolong its core business operations in oil and gas extraction amidst mounting environmental and legal challenges. |
| MMM | 3M Company | 3M has a documented pattern of using improper payments to foreign officials to secure business, culminating in a 2023 enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The SEC order detailed that a 3M subsidiary in China arranged improper payments to Chinese government officials, disguising them as travel, conferences, and study tours, to obtain business from state-owned healthcare enterprises. These payments were improperly recorded in the company’s books and records. While 3M maintains a public Code of Conduct and a Lobbying and Political Activities Principle, the FCPA settlement demonstrates a failure of internal controls. The company’s own PAC is active in political contributions, and its governance documents emphasize compliance with lobbying laws. However, the 2023 settlement reveals a gap between policy and practice, showing the company’s engagement in activities designed to improperly influence officials to shield or advance its business interests. |
| HSY | Hershey Company (The) | The Hershey Company is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation and the National Confectioners Association, trade groups that have historically opposed mandatory due diligence legislation for cocoa supply chains. Hershey’s own 2024 Advocacy Expenditure Report details corporate expenditures for lobbying activities, though the company states it does not use corporate funds for political contributions. For over two decades, Hershey and its industry peers have faced litigation alleging the use of child and forced labor in West African cocoa sourcing; a 2021 lawsuit by eight children from Ivory Coast specifically named Hershey as a defendant. While the company publishes sustainability goals and is a signatory to industry frameworks, these voluntary measures have persisted alongside ongoing allegations and legal challenges concerning labor abuses in its supply chain. This pattern of engaging in industry lobbying while facing repeated, serious allegations of human rights violations in cocoa sourcing constitutes a use of corporate influence to shield its practices from stricter regulatory oversight. |
| SBUX | Starbucks Corporation | Starbucks Corporation has engaged in extensive political activity to influence labor law and enforcement. The company is a member of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group that lobbies against minimum wage increases and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Starbucks’ own federal lobbying disclosures show expenditures targeting “labor and employment issues” and “labor relations,” specifically naming the PRO Act and the National Labor Relations Board. This political engagement coincides with a documented pattern of anti-union activity. The National Labor Relations Board has issued over 100 complaints against Starbucks since 2021, finding the company illegally fired union organizers, closed unionized stores, withheld raises from unionized workers, and refused to bargain in good faith. In 2024, a federal judge ordered Starbucks to reinstate fired workers and cease anti-union intimidation nationwide, noting the company’s “egregious and widespread misconduct.” Starbucks’ political lobbying seeks to shape the regulatory environment that governs these very labor practices. |
| EXC | Exelon | Exelon’s subsidiary Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) engaged in a long-running political corruption scheme to influence legislation in Illinois. Between 2011 and 2019, ComEd arranged jobs, subcontracts, and payments for associates of a powerful state official, who in turn helped pass legislation favorable to the utility’s business. This scheme aimed to shield ComEd’s practices and secure regulatory and legislative outcomes, including rate increases and nuclear subsidy legislation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Exelon and ComEd with fraud and violations of books and records and internal accounting controls provisions. In September 2023, Exelon and ComEd agreed to pay a $46.2 million penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. This followed a 2020 deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, in which ComEd admitted to bribery and paid a $200 million fine. The SEC complaint detailed that the company failed to accurately record these corrupt payments, instead booking them as legitimate expenses for lobbying and other services. |
| LLY | Eli Lilly and Company | Eli Lilly paid $29.4 million to settle SEC charges (2012) for bribing government officials in Russia, China, Brazil, and Poland to win pharmaceutical business — a documented FCPA violation. Beyond direct bribery, Lilly spends $8-11 million annually on federal lobbying and backs PhRMA, which funneled $17.5 million in dark money to the American Action Network (2020-2023) to oppose Medicare drug price negotiation. Lilly's CEO publicly opposed the Inflation Reduction Act's pricing provisions while the company filed amicus briefs challenging CMS authority and contributed $500K-$1M to Trump's 2025 inaugural committee. Public Citizen found Lilly failed to disclose state lobbying expenditures for half the country. The pattern — publicly claiming to support affordability while funding dark money opposition to pricing reform, combined with documented foreign bribery — constitutes using political influence to shield harmful practices from oversight. |
| KHC | The Kraft Heinz Company | The Kraft Heinz Company maintains a structured political influence operation through its corporate political action committee (PAC) and lobbying activities. According to its public governance documents, the company has established compliance procedures and oversight for its lobbying activities, corporate contributions, and the Kraft Heinz PAC. Employee political contributions from corporate funds require approval from the Global Head of Government Affairs. The company engages in lobbying as part of its ongoing community and policy engagement. While its public disclosures outline governance procedures, the scale and strategic focus of these expenditures are not fully detailed in available public sources. The available evidence does not specify the monetary volume of these activities, their specific policy targets, or whether they are deployed to shield specific business practices related to public health or sustainability. |
| HON | Honeywell International Inc. | Honeywell International is a major federal contractor, with approximately 35% of its revenue derived from government sales, including to the U.S. Department of Defense. The company maintains a significant lobbying presence to influence policy related to its core aerospace, building technologies, and energy businesses. In 2022, Honeywell settled legacy Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay a total of $202.7 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest. The company also settled alleged export violations with the U.S. Department of State in 2021 for $13 million. Honeywell’s stated lobbying approach advocates for “technologically neutral solutions” across its diversified portfolio, a stance that can shield its legacy fossil fuel-based product lines from more stringent climate and energy transition policies. |
| DPZ | Domino's Pizza Inc | Domino's Pizza Inc. maintains a significant lobbying presence despite its stated policy against direct political contributions. The company reported $320,000 in federal lobbying expenditures in 2024, focusing on issues including food labeling, labor regulations, and tax policy. This activity represents a documented effort to influence the regulatory environment in which it operates. While the company states it does not use corporate funds for direct political contributions and does not have a political action committee, its substantial lobbying expenditure constitutes political influence. The West Yorkshire Pension Fund noted concerns over the company's sustainability policies and practices in 2024, casting an oppose vote against its sustainability program. This suggests investor scrutiny regarding the alignment of its public policy engagements with broader sustainability commitments. |
| BMY | Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | Bristol-Myers Squibb's political influence extends well beyond standard pharma lobbying ($10M in 2025, 91% YoY increase). BMS is distinguished by a 2007 criminal guilty plea for perjury (lying to DOJ about Plavix/Apotex anti-generic agreements), a 2003 FTC consent decree for a "pattern of abusing government processes" to stifle generic competition across Taxol, Platinol, and BuSpar, and a 2009 $2.1M penalty for violating that same consent decree regarding Plavix. BMS is one of a handful of pharma companies that actively sued to block Medicare price negotiation under the IRA (dismissed at district and appellate levels; cert petition pending at SCOTUS). BMS contributes to PhRMA, which gave $4.5M to American Action Network (dark money group opposing drug pricing reform) in 2020. |
| DOW | Dow Inc. | Dow Inc. discloses spending millions annually on lobbying expenses and political contributions. Its influence extends through memberships in industry associations like the American Chemistry Council, which actively opposes stricter chemical safety rules and climate legislation. Dow has been a lead opponent of the EPA's efforts to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of "forever chemicals" for which it is a major manufacturer. The company lobbied extensively against the designation of PFAS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, a classification that would increase cleanup liability and regulatory oversight for producers. |
| CNP | CenterPoint Energy | CenterPoint sits on the board of the American Gas Association, which opposes building electrification policy. The company is a member of ALEC and Consumer Energy Alliance. It supported Texas SB 1261, which blocks municipal greenhouse gas regulation, and Indiana PL 180, which blocks fossil gas bans. In 2021, a CenterPoint lobbyist ghostwrote third-party comments submitted to Minnesota regulators supporting gas appliance rebates. The company acknowledged providing "guidance and sample letters." InfluenceMap assesses CenterPoint as taking "mostly negative positions on the energy transition" and "strategically advocating for fossil gas infrastructure." |
| NEE | NextEra | Private securities class action (Jastram v. NextEra Energy) filed after CEO Eric Silagy's abrupt January 2023 resignation following exposure of the Matrix LLC dark money scheme. NextEra subsidiary FPL deployed proxy firms to surveil journalists, fund ghost candidates to manipulate Florida elections, and infiltrate local media. The stock dropped 8.7% ($15B market cap loss) when the scheme was exposed. The district court initially dismissed the case, but the Eleventh Circuit reversed in November 2025, finding investors plausibly alleged loss causation. The case is alive and proceeding. |
| CVS | CVS Health Corporation | CVS Health spent $9.93M on federal lobbying in 2025 and $9.46M in 2024, and donated to dark money groups including America First Policies. Systematic use of corporate resources to shape healthcare policy for commercial advantage. |
| AMGN | Amgen Inc. | $212M+ in federal lobbying (2003-2024), consistently among the top pharmaceutical spenders. Lobbying focused on opposing drug pricing reform and Medicare negotiation authority. |
The Naughty List
A digest of changes to our exclusion list — new additions, removals, and the evidence behind them. We review the list continuously as new evidence surfaces.
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