和总统大选一样吸引眼球：2016年五大商业丑闻

在像2016年这样的大选年里，任何新闻要想跟总统大选抢头条，都不是一件容易的事。不过老百姓对丑闻却总是津津乐道的，因此在过去一年间，的确也有不少跨国企业里发生的丑闻成功占据了媒体头条。

不管是富国银行的员工用真客户的名字开立假账户，还是制药巨头迈兰公司对很多病人的救命药狠提价，今年发生的很多诸如此类的事情都表明，企业的成功路上布满陷阱，拥有权力的人又经常会滥用权力。以下就为您带来2016年的五大商业丑闻。

富国银行的假账户

During an election year, any story has to compete for attention with the all-consuming race for the White House. But the public always has an appetite for a good scandal, and plenty of misdeeds on the part of the global business class were able to break into the headlines over the past 12 months.

Whether it was Wells Fargo employees creating fake accounts in the names of real customers, or pharma giant Mylan imposing big price increases on users of its 心life-saving EpiPen, there were plenty of stories this year that highlight the pitfalls on the road to business success, and the fact that people in power abuse that power all too often. Here are the biggest scandals of 2016:

Wells Fargo's Fake Accounts

富国银行在后金融危机时代的银行界里简直就像个含着金勺子的胖娃娃。富国银行拥有庞大的零星小额存款客户群，这使它安然度过了09年的信贷危机，并且凭借全国性的业务网络变得更加强大。但富国银行的战略也是有缺点的，即利润增长能力不强，需要依靠向其客户群交叉销售高利润产品。

这种方法实际上把公司带到沟里去了。企业领导们为了促进增长，就会向员工施加业绩压力，逼迫他们实现销售定额；很多员工面临上级的死命令，只好靠开立假账户来蒙混过关。有些时候这些账户在客户发现之前就销户了，还有些时候，客户甚至要承担由此造成的相关费用，甚至影响到了他们的个人信用。富国银行为此向客户返还了260万美元的不当得利，并向政府缴纳了1.86亿美元的罚款。但富国银行遭受的最大打击还是在它的声誉上，假账户丑闻东窗事发后，媒体和政府官员动不动就要拿此事做文章，把富国银行批判一番。（该丑闻也让CEO约翰·斯通普夫丢了饭碗。

罗杰·艾尔斯的性骚扰丑闻

Wells Fargo was the golden child of the post-financial crisis banking world. The bank's focus on funding itself with a large base of retail deposits helped it weather the late-aughts credit crisis and emerge even stronger with a truly nationwide presence. The downside to Wells Fargo's strategy? To grow profits, it had to rely on its ability to cross-sell more profitable products to its customer base.

That path wound up leading the company into a quagmire. Executives sought to drive growth by putting undue pressure on its employees to hit sales quotas, and many employees responded by fraudulently opening customer accounts. In most cases these accounts were closed before customers noticed, but in other cases consumers were hit with associated fees or took hits to their credit ratings. The bank was forced to return $2.6 million in ill-gotten fees and pay $186 million in fines to the government. But the biggest hit Wells Fargo will take is to its reputation, as the media and government officials spent much of the year slamming the bank for its fraud. (The scandal also cost CEO John Stumpf his job.)

Roger Ailes's Sexual-Harassment Scandal

当福克斯电视台的当家花旦、知名主播格雷琴·卡尔森公开起诉福克斯新闻的CEO罗杰·艾尔斯对她性骚扰时，几乎没有人会想到，一位当代最成功的有视电视新闻高管的职业生涯竟然就这样戛然而止。然而这还仅仅是个开始，卡尔森起诉艾尔斯的新闻爆出之后，相继又有多名女性站出来指控艾尔斯曾对她们进行过性骚扰。

福克斯电视的母公司21世纪福克斯的现任掌门人、接替老默多克的詹姆斯·默多克和拉克兰·默多克兄弟授权外部律师对此事进行了内部调查，结果发现艾尔斯还涉嫌其他几次性骚扰事件。小默多克兄弟最终选择遣散了艾尔斯，不过他们还是向后者支付了4000万美元的遣散费。

艾尔斯最终用2000万美元与卡尔森达成了和解，然而他还要继续与其他几位控诉他性骚扰的女性打官司。虽说艾尔森被解职后还曾继续为特朗普的大选活动站台，然而他今年夏天的突然倒台，还是令他成为了近年来最令人意外的落马企业高管之一。

迈兰的哄抬药价丑闻

When former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson made public her lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, few thought the suit would end the career of the most successful cable news executive of his generation. But the news of Carlson's action opened a floodgate of reports about complaints from several other women that Ailes had allegedly harassed over the years.

James Murdoch and his brother Lachlan—who have run Fox parent 21st Century Fox as CEO after their father Rupert stepped down in 2015—commissioned an internal review by outside lawyers that uncovered several other allegations of sexual harassment. That report convinced the executives they had to force Ailes out, though not before offering him a $40 million severance package.

Ailes eventually settled with Carlson for $20 million, and he continues to face lawsuits from other accusers. Though Ailes went on to be a player in Donald Trump's successful presidential campaign, his wipeout this summer remains one of the most surprising and headlong downfalls of a top executive in recent memory.

Mylan's Epipen Price Gouging Scandal

美国消费者对药品提价这种事早已不见怪不怪了，然而从没有一次提价像迈兰公司对EpiPen肾上腺素笔的这次提价一样激起了如此强烈的民愤。这种药物主要用于治疗过敏性反应引起的过敏性休克，深受1至13岁患有食物过敏症的儿童的家长的喜爱。不过自从2007年收购了该药物的专利以来，迈兰公司已经将Epipen的价格提高了400%。

很多美国家庭，特别是那些医保报销比例不高的家庭，要想花500美元买这样一支救命药还是很吃力的。由于迈兰公司对该药物拥有近乎垄断的地位，消费者基本上没有其他选择。为此，美国国会专门召开了听证会，让迈兰公司CEO海瑟·布莱什向众议院监督委员会解释她屡次提价的理由。舆论的负面宣传也使迈兰公司的股票陡然大跌。

该丑闻也使各州检察机关纷纷对迈兰公司展开调查，比如纽约州总检察长正在调查该公司是否违反了反垄断法，西弗吉尼亚州检察长则正在针对该公司的定价开展医保欺诈调查。司法部还在追究该公司是否通过故意对该药物进行错误分类来避免向美国的政府医疗项目足额缴纳回款，不过迈兰公司最终还是在10月份与司法部达成了和解。

三星电池召回丑闻

The American consumer is no stranger to steep price hikes on drugs. But few increases drew outrage like drug company Mylan's decision to raise the price of its EpiPen. The device, which administers epinephrine, a crucial antidote for those suffering anaphylactic shock due to allergic reactions, is beloved by parents of the 1 in 13 children that suffer from food allergies in America. But Mylan has increased its price by 400% since acquiring the device in 2007.

Many American families, especially those with high-deductible health insurance, struggle to afford the $500 sticker price for the life-saving drug. And with Mylan controlling a near-monopoly on such products, consumers were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Congress dragged CEO Heather Bresch in front of the House Oversight Committee to answer for her pricing decisions, and the bad publicity caused Mylan's stock to drop precipitously.

The scandal also prompted state attorneys general to investigate the company, with New York's AG looking into whether the company committed antitrust violations, and West Virginia's AG launching a Medicaid fraud probe into the drugmaker’s pricing. The company settled in October with the Justice Department over whether it underpaid rebates to U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying the drug.

Samsung Battery Recall

如今的智能手机几乎已经无所不能了，但自爆显然不是大多数消费者最需要的功能。

今年夏天，有报道爆料称最新推出的三星Galaxy Note 7手机容易爆炸，随着各路媒体竞相追踪报道，此事也像滚雪球一样闹得越来越大。第一批报道发出后不到一星期，美国联邦航空委员会便建议乘客在飞机上不要让Note 7开机或给其充电，也不要把它放在货舱里托运。（大多数航空公司现在已经完全禁止Note 7上飞机了。）美国消费产品安全委员会随后也呼吁Note 7的机主彻底停止使用该手机。

三星随后对Note 7启动了正式召回，然而此时这个小号二踢脚已经让一些消费者中了招，导致三星陷入了官司缠身和公关告急的境地。

素食品公司汉普顿克里克雇“托”造假丑闻

汉普顿克里克公司是旧金山的一家主打“植物源食品”的初创公司，该公司最出名的产品就是它的素蛋黄酱。该公司自2011年成立以来，就在行业中摆出一付敢于斗争的架式，不怕跟监管机构和大型食品公司打官司，并且经常围绕产品的健康功效问题与各方进行撕逼。

然而今年《彭博商业周刊》的一篇深度爆料文却让该公司的声誉遭受了严重的打击——该文章称，汉普顿克里克公司采取的“误导性或夸张性的宣传模式有可能是为了故意欺骗消费者”。据该报道揭露，该公司的员工和承包商在零售商超买走了大量的该公司产品，从而有效刷高了该公司的销量数据。该报道还称，该公司以其产品的环境可持续性为卖点吸引投资人向其融资，然而后来的事实证明，该公司产品的所谓“环境可持续性”其实是虚构的。

汉普顿克里克公司拒绝承认自己做了任何不道德的事情，并表示公司之所以派人到零售超市购买自家产品，是因为这是公司品控流程的一部分。不过美国证监会和美国司法部已经针对该公司的这些伎俩展开了调查。另外，汉普顿克里克公司的传奇创业故事也一度传得神乎其神，它自称很多知名科技风投家都是它的投资人。这也不禁让人关注硅谷的其他初创公司及其投资人有没有可能也在搞坑蒙拐骗和刷数据这一套。（财富中文网）

作者：Chris Matthews

译者：朴成奎

Hampton Creek, a San Francisco "plant-based food" startup best known for its eggless mayonnaise, has been a pugnacious presence in its industry since its 2011 launch, fighting (and often winning) legal tussles and public-relations battles with regulators and bigger food companies over the health claims of its products.

But Hampton's Creek reputation took a much heavier hit in September when a detailed exposé in Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported that the company had exhibited “pattern of mistaken or exaggerated claims that may prove to be deliberately deceptive.” The report revealed that Hampton Creek employees and contractors had bought up huge quantities of the company’s products at retail outlets, effectively inflating the company's sales numbers. It also alleged that the company had raised money from investors using claims about its products' environmental sustainability that were later disproved.

Hampton Creek has denied any wrongdoing, and said that the retail buybacks were part of a quality-control effort. But the company's tactics have prompted investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. The saga of Hampton Creek, which counts many prominent tech venture capitalists among its investors, has also helped draw attention to the potential for abuses and number-fudging among startups and their financiers in Silicon Valley, as Erin Griffith reports in the January issue of Fortune.