From Volkswagen’s Dieselgate to Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, to SeppBlatter, the disgraced former head of soccer’s international governing body, 2015 did not disappoint on corporate scandals.

The allegations weren’t as big as, say, Enron or Madoff, the characters were just as captivating. Shkreli was defiant on Twitter. Perhaps the most blatant was Volkswagen, which ran commercials of its engineers as angels even when company officials were setting up elaborate systems to lie to customers and get around pollution controls. Here are the most compelling corporate fiascos and alleged frauds of 2015.

在2015年，从大众的“柴油门”，到图灵制药前CEO马丁•什克雷利被捕，再到因丑闻离职的国际足联前主席赛普•布拉特，全年的公司丑闻可谓“好戏连台”。

虽说这些事件本身并不能和安然事件或者麦道夫案相提并论，但所涉人物却同样个性鲜明。图灵制药前CEO甚至在推特上叫板，而大众却可能是最公然无耻的，该公司高管一边通过周密的系统欺骗消费者，并绕过排放监控，另一边却依然播放着声称自己拥有“天使”般工程师的广告。

以下让我们细数2015年最令人瞩目的公司丑闻。

The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

When Volkswagen revealed in September that it had installed software on millions of cars in order to trick the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions testers into thinking that the cars were more environmentally friendly than they were, investors understandably deserted the company.

Volkswagen lost roughly $20 billion in market capitalization, as investors worried about the cost of compensating customers for selling them cars that weren't compliant with environmental regulations.

The company not only has to deal with compensating their customers, but it will also need to contend with potential fines from regulators as well as a reputational hit that could severely affect its market share.

大众排放丑闻

今年9月，大众公司被曝在上百万辆大众汽车上安装软件，通过该作弊方式让美国环境保护署（Environmental Protection Agency）排放测试仪相信大众汽车比此前更为环保，消息曝出后公司自然遭到了投资者的唾弃。

由于投资者担心大众要为购买环保不合规汽车的消费者做出赔偿，大众市值因此缩水约200亿美元。

公司不仅要处理赔偿消费者事宜，还要面临可能来自监管部门的罚款，同时，由此所受的声誉打击可能严重影响公司的市场份额。

FIFA Corruption Scandal

The only surprising fact about the FBI’s indictment of FIFA officials for racketeering, fraud, and other offenses was that the charges came from the United States, where soccer’s popularity lags the rest of the world.

The corruption part was the least remarkable aspect of the news, as FIFA officials had long been suspected of taking bribes in exchange for granting broadcasting rights for games and hosting rights for events like the World Cup.

The FBI also indicted five sports marketing executives at the same time. And the scandal spooked some of America’s largest corporations, including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s-top FIFA sponsors. These firms called on the governing body to fire its leadership and enact tough reforms.

国际足联贪腐丑闻

在这起FBI起诉国际足联官员敲诈、欺骗等其他罪名的案件中，唯一让人惊讶的是，该控诉来自足球流行程度落后于其他地区的美国。

而贪腐本身可能是最不足为奇的，因为很长一段时间内，国际足联都被怀疑通过收受贿赂交换世界杯等赛事的转播权和主办权。

FBI还同时起诉了五位负责赛事营销的高管。该丑闻引起了一些美国大公司的担忧，可口可乐和麦当劳等企业就表示考虑暂停对国际足联的赞助，并敦促政府发挥领导力，颁布更严苛的改革措施。

Toshiba Accounting Scandal

No list of corporate screw-ups would be complete without a good old-fashioned accounting scandal. In September, electronics conglomerate Toshiba admitted that it had overstated its earnings by nearly $2 billion over seven years, more than four times its initial estimate in April.

CEO and President Hisao Tanaka resigned from the firm, and an independent investigators found that “Toshiba had a corporate culture in which management decisions could not be challenged” and “Employees were pressured into inappropriate accounting by postponing loss reports or moving certain costs into later years.”

东芝财务丑闻

如果少了精彩老套的财务案，怎么能算完整的公司丑闻榜呢。9月份，电子业巨头东芝承认7年来虚报利润超过20亿美元，超过4月份估算数额的四倍。

CEO兼董事会主席田中久雄引咎辞职，独立调查机构发现“东芝的公司文化是管理层决策不容挑战”，以及“员工迫于压力选择不当的财务记录方式，如推迟亏损计入，或某项成本开支延迟计入。”

Valeant's Secret Division

In October, short seller Andrew Left accused drug company Valeant of using a specialty pharmacy company Philidor to artificially inflate its sales. Valeant denied the charges. But the fact that Valeant had never discussed its close ties to Philidor raised questions about Valeant's, and Philidor's, sales practices. It also shook investors' confidence in the acquisitive drug company, which had racked up debt as it did deals.

Valeant VRX -10.49% could still be on the hook if Philidor broke any laws. Valeant employees appear to have worked at Philidor under aliases to hide their identities. And Valeant had paid $100 million for anan undisclosed option to acquire Philidor for no additional dollars whenever it wanted, essentially giving Valeant ownership of the company.

Valeant has appointed a special committee of its board, and an outside investigator, to look into the company's ties to Philidor, but it has yet to report its findings. Valeant said that Philidor sales never amounted to more than 7% of its total sales. Valeant's shares fell 75% in the wake of these revelations, to just over $70 from a high of $260.

Also contributing to the stock fall was the fact that Valeant had been accused over the summer of price gouging, buying up drugs and then rapidly raising their prices. A number of members of Congress, including presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, have called for an investigation into the company's drug pricing practices. And in early October, the company confirmed that it had received a federal subpoena.

Many well known hedge funders, including Bill Ackman, who has defended the company, suffered big losses on Valeant stock in the wake of the scandal.

威朗的秘密分支

10月份，做空机构Andrew Left控告医药公司威朗利用专业药房Philidor人为提高销售额，此后威朗否认了该指控。但由于威朗从未提及过它与Philidor的密切关系，这引起外界对这两家公司做法的众多质疑。如今，公司债务随着交易积累越来越多，投资者对这家贪婪的公司的信心也备受打击。

如果Philidor被证实违法，威朗恐怕也脱不了干系。据称威朗员工似乎用别名隐藏身份在Philidor工作，而且威朗以1亿美元获得了一项不公开收购philidor的权力，而且是在它希望的随便任何时候进行，且不需额外花费, 这让威朗成为了philidor的实际拥有者。

威朗已指派一位董事会特别委员以及一名外部调查员负责调查该公司与philidor的关系，但调查结果尚未公布。威朗表示Philidor的销售额从未超过其销售总额的7%。丑闻爆出后，威朗股价随即由260美元暴跌至70美元，市值蒸发75%。

此外，威朗还被控在今年夏季哄抬药价，即收购药物之后立刻提高价格。包括有希望成为总统候选人的博尼•桑德斯等数位国会议员都呼吁对该公司定价行为展开调查。10月初，该公司已确认收到联邦政府传票。

消息曝出后，持有威朗股票的众多著名对冲基金均损失惨重，其中就有试图力挽威朗的基金大佬比尔•阿克曼。

Turing Pharmceuticals and Martin Shkreli

Martin Shkreli became known as the bad boy of the drug industry after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. But it's what he did before that could land him in jail.

In mid-December, the government arrested Shkreli on charges of stock fraud related to his activities while at Retrophin, the drug company he ran before Turing. The former hedge fund manager is accused of using shares of Retrophin to pay off investors who had lost money with a hedge fund he ran in the past. The government described Shkreli's alleged behavior as similar to a ponzi scheme.

Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Shkreli, who has been defiant on Twitter about the allegations against him, bought the sole copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million. He has had called himself the most successful Albanian. Mother Teresa, also an Albanian, presumably would not be proud.

图灵制药和马丁•什克雷利

据报道，图灵制药收购了一款已生产62年的药品之后，将其价格卖到每粒750美元，提价50倍。此消息一出，公司CEO马丁•什克雷利立刻成为公众眼中的恶棍。然而，令他入狱的是他此前的违法行为。

什克雷利曾在任职图灵制药之前执掌另一家医药公司Retrophin，12月中旬，政府以什克雷利曾在Retrophin进行股票欺诈为由将其逮捕。由于造成了投资人在其管理的基金中亏钱，这位昔日的对冲基金经理被控挪用Retrophin公司股票，以此给这些投资者弥补损失。政府机构表示什克雷利的行为类似庞氏骗局。

坚称自己无罪的什克雷利说，并无证据表明他有欺诈，因为他的投资者并未亏钱。而且，什克雷利还在推特上对这起指控表示不以为然。这个曾花200万美元购买Wu-Tang Clan唱片的人称自己是最成功的阿尔巴尼亚人——然而，同为阿尔巴尼亚人的特蕾莎修女恐怕并不会以他为荣。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

校对：詹妮