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PHOTOS: Biggest corporate settlements

Volkswagen: $15.3 billion Automaker Volkswagen will pay up to $15.3 billion for rigging diesel emissions tests to make it appear its cars met U.S. standards. It's the largest fine ever in the auto industry.

Volkswagen: $15.3 billion

Automaker Volkswagen will pay up to $15.3 billion for rigging diesel emissions tests to make it appear its cars met U.S. standards. It’s the largest fine ever in the auto industry.

  (John MacDougall / AFP/Getty Images)

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The U.S government fined Volkswagen up to $15.3 billion to settle claims over its emissions-cheating scandal. It’s the latest massive monetary settlement resulting from corporate malfeasance — but it’s not close to be being the biggest. Here are some landmark settlements of recent years.

Big Tobacco

Big Tobacco: $246 billion

In 1998, the nation’s 50 state attorneys general reached a $246 billion settlement with the five top tobacco companies. The tobacco companies agreed to pay out over 25 years (ending in 2025), offsetting the cost incurred by states to treat smoking-related illnesses.

  (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

BP Deepwater Horizon

BP: $20.8 billion

After BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, untold tons of oil polluted the sea and shore. Here, animal rescue workers hired by BP work to recover a severly oiled pelican on Grand Terre Island in Lousiana.

  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline: $3 billion

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline was hit in 2012 with the largest-ever fine for the pharmaceutical industry. The company admitted to bribing doctors to prescribe its drugs, hiring “independent” doctors to write favorable articles in medical journals, withholding safety data and more.

  (Ben Stansall / AFP/Getty Images)

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