Twice, the traffic safety administration imposed the maximum statutory fine on Toyota, for dragging its feet in its recalls and for waiting four months before telling the agency about problems with sticky pedals.
The tarred roads are usually in good shape; speed limits are actually enforced, by smart traffic police who fill out paperwork in exchange for a statutory fine rather than shaking you down for a bribe.
And that will make it easier for the keepers of our own corporate state to rationalize its growing surveillance and ensnarement of American citizens in coils of corporate and statutory fine print right here at home, thanks to the NSA, the Citizens United ruling, mass incarceration, and more.
The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
"A Halliburton subsidiary has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanour violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation," the company said in a statement.
If, as the secretary asserts, the department were required to ignore all returns received after the statutory date, the fine provision would be meaningless.
"We recommend that measures to implement the recommendations of the joint committee that the House should lose its powers of imprisonment and should be given a statutory power to fine offenders be included in the draft privileges bill".
The commission does not have statutory authority to assess fines for violations of its regulations, although it can being a lawsuit against someone who violates a consent order.
Under a ruling of gross negligence, Barbier issued in September, BP could be fined a statutory limit of up to $4,300 for each barrel spilled, though he has authority to assign lower penalties.
