Regulatory Failures
Companies with a documented pattern of regulatory violations across multiple domains — serial OSHA violations, repeated EPA consent decrees, FDA warning letters, or a history of fines suggesting systemic disregard for compliance. Important context: many regulatory penalties are capped by statute (e.g., OSHA maximum penalty is often ~$16,000 per violation), so small dollar amounts do not mean small violations. The test is the pattern, not the individual incident or penalty size. Escalating threshold applies: one violation is alarming, two is very concerning, three or more with the same fact pattern is dispositive. Recency matters — genuine compliance reform should be weighed. Use a more specific code when violations cluster in one domain (emissions, working_conditions, financial_misconduct).
Excluded Companies (9 total)
Showing 8 of 9 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| AMAT | APPLIED MATERIALS INC | Export control violation — BIS $252M penalty (Feb 2026) for shipping restricted semiconductor equipment to entities on the Entity List, including suppliers to Chinese military programs. |
| ATO | Atmos Energy Corporation | PHMSA Warning Letter CPF 1-2023-025-WL (Mar 2023): probable violations of pipeline safety regulations at Atmos underground natural gas storage fields |
| BKD | Brookdale Senior Living Inc. | California Attorney General $3.25 million enforcement settlement (March 2022) for systemic consumer deception. Brookdale deliberately defrauded CMS to artificially inflate facility safety "star rating... |
| CAH | Cardinal Health | Pattern of regulatory non-compliance: $6B opioid settlement, $35M SEC accounting fraud settlement, $250M+ safety penalties — fines absorbed as cost of business rather than triggering structural reform |
| PRI | Primerica | FINRA Sep 2024: Primerica censured and fined $60,000 for failing to establish and enforce a supervisory system for registered representatives' outside business activities |
| TSLA | Tesla | ViolationTracker documents 49+ safety-related offenses, SEC $20M investor protection penalty for misleading autopilot disclosures, and False Claims Act penalties |
| TV | Grupo Televisa | FIFA bribery (US DOJ 2015 indictments, Televisa executives named); Mexico broadcast license irregularities; pattern of government contract non-compliance |
| YETI | YETI HOLDINGS INC | In March 2023, YETI recalled approximately 1.9 million soft coolers and gear cases after magnets in the closures began detaching — an ingestion hazard. By the time of the recall, YETI had received nea... |
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.