Battles with the US government hurt several stocks. Raymond James will pay $300 million for disputes over auction rate securities. Monsanto is under investigation for potential illegal payments to customers. HealthSouth was charged for false Medicare claims. New York City wants $600 million back from SAIC for faulty payroll systems

 

The Flame Index started as a research tool in 2008 at the NY Innovation Design Lab (nyidlab). It was used as a general metric to evaluate companies and their risk in the media. Publicly traded Fortune 500 companies are used as a measure to calculate an overall market of negative news and the companies are ranked within that market.

Rank	Company	Ticker	Score	Change in Rank	Comments
11	Raymond James Financial	RJF	28.867	+274	Settles with SEC for bad behavior with auction rate paper. $300 million hit.
13	Monsanto	MON	27.749	+400	Big profit, but SEC look at sales incentives for customers
18	HealthSouth	HLS	25.784	+177	Charged with false Medicare claims
19	BJ’s Wholesale Club	BJ	25.514	+354	Sold to private parties
21	Freddie Mac	FRE	25.128	+302	More concern about liquidation
33	Computer Sciences	CSC	21.082	+115	Legal claims management misrepresented company’s financial situation
34	Apple	AAPL	20.571	+103	Suit by Samsung over patents
37	Philip Morris International	PM	20.147	+119	Australians want harsh warnings on cigarette labels
44	SAIC	SAI	19.116	+257	New York City claims it should get back $600 million for flawed payroll system
47	Ameren	AEE	18.731	+152	S&P questions value of shares

Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.