Exxon Spills Oil, Reaps Profits

Several weeks ago was the twentieth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, when a grounded tanker spilled 11 million barrels of crude into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The images were shocking: Hundreds of thousands of dead seabirds and fish, more than a thousand miles of damaged shoreline, the tanker’s hull spilling oil into the clear blue Alaskan waters.

But few people know that Exxon Mobil (XOM) is still fighting the punitive damages it's been enjoined to pay to the victims. And Exxon has actually made money by fighting the lawsuit for as long as it has.