History Main / CorporateConspiracy

* ''LightNovel/DateALive'': Deus Ex Machina Industries (DEM), the only corporation to manufacture Realizer Units, is secretly being used by its Managing Director [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Sir]] [[FauxAffablyEvil Isaac]] [[TheSociopath Ray]] [[{{Sadist}} Peram]] [[MisanthropeSupreme Wescott]] in his plan to seek and harness all Spirit powers, and thus plunge the Earth into chaos and destruction. His ultimate goal is to remake the world so that [[SuperSupremacist humans will be subservient to Mages]].

** The MadScientist organization [[FunWithAcronyms AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics)]] started of as a ResearchInc, hiding its true origins as a division of ComicBook/{{Hydra}}.

* This was [=ComStar's=] role in the early years of ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}''. Supposedly just the company that ran the SubspaceAnsible, they were also a religious order who believed that there would be a coming catatrophy that would reduce the Inner Sphere to ruin, and that they would be the ones to pick up the pieces. Because of that, they played the different Successor States against each other (easy to do when you've got a monopoly on interplanetary communications). They were eventually found out after the Clan invasion (notably because [=Comstar's=] leader at the time tried to [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double-cross the Inner Sphere and the Clans at the same time]] and after some internal cleaning promised they wouldn't do things like that anymore. Nobody really believes them. On a smaller scale, {{Mega Corp}}s like Defiance Industries, Starcorp, and Irain Battlemechs regularly perform acts of espionage and sabotage against each other, trying to learn or steal new research in order to get a leg up on the competition.

* ''Series/MutantX'': The titular {{Mutants}} were created through covert [[GeneticEngineeringisTheNewNuke genetic engineering]] experiments that the company Genomex did on hundereds of unsuspecting people for the government -- when a group of Mutants escape, Genomex sends out some PrivateMilitaryContractors called the [[CapeBusters Genetic Security Agency]] to recapture them.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Paradius/Doma is an AncientConspiracy that owns [[MegaCorp the richest and most powerful company in the world]], along with ''every other company in the world''. It's all a front for their {{Cult}} devoted to a soul-devouring god.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': It's probably easier to say which companies aren't involved in some vast conspiracy (i.e. none). The worst offenders are Aztechnology (who use BloodMagic, and tend to be CardCarryingVillain sorts to deniable assets like 'runners) and Saeder-Krupp (literally owned by a scheming dragon, who's rumoured to eat employees and shadowrunners who fail him). Even unethical shadowrunners avoid them, simply because of their tendency to invoke YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when it comes to being paid. It's practically a RunningGag that they have to pretend to be another corp just to hire deniable assets.

* ''Film/IFrankenstein'': The Wessex Institute presents itself as a medical research company that studies life-extending therapies, but its CEO is secretly a powerful [[DemonlordsAndArchdevils arch-devil from Hell]], who's using the company as a front to bring an army of demons to Earth by having them [[PossessingADeadbody possess human corpses]].

What exactly this plot entails varies. The conspiracy may be [[ArmsDealer selling armaments]] to incite WarForFunAndProfit, they may be [[RealEstateScam manipulating property value]] to [[VillainousGentrification gentrify the neighborhood]] and KillThePoor, they may be [[PoisonAndCureGambit secretly, deliberately spread diseases or causes some other kind of problem while selling the cure/solution to the masses]], or be PlayingWithSyringes to make {{Super Soldier}}s and TakeOverTheWorld... what counts is that they're evil ([[BenevolentConspiracy again, with a few exceptions]]), and they're secret.

* ''VideoGame/LANoire'': [[spoiler:Officially, the Suburban Redevelopment Fund was a private organization, a cabal of several prominent local officials and citizens, building houses for [=GIs=]. Unbeknownst to the public, [[RealEstateScam the directors intentionally buys up land along the proposed route of the new freeway, burning down the house of anyone who refuses to sell, then building cheap houses on them to drive up the value when the government offers to buy them out under eminent domain]]. Oh, and all of this was being partially funded by stolen army-surplus morphine.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': Vault-Tec was in cahoots with the Enclave to use their vaults to survive the inevitable [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]], [[MadScientist use the population of some vaults as the subjects of experiments]], and use the data to build spaceships and [[HomeworldEvacuation evacuate]]. In the end, no spaceships were built, but the experiments continued nontheless...

* ''[[VideoGame/SpaceQuest Space Quest 5]]'': Genetix is the group behind the [[ToxicInc illegal dumping of toxic chemicals]] on inhabited backwater worlds within the Federation, as well as the resulting Pukeoid Mutation Plague. They're getting away with it because [[FakeUltimateHero Captain Quark]], who has been assigned to find and stop the dumpers, is secretly on their payroll and even assisting in the dumping. This backfires spectacularly on him.

Some corporations in fiction are ObviouslyEvil. Others [[VillainWithGoodPublicity might seem benevolent]] but are actually engaged in unethical business practices. However, some corporations go the extra mile. Not content with mere [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corruption]], they engage in a wide-spreading, [[TheConspiracy secret]] EvilPlan to achieve their goals -- usually, but not always, profit. This is the [[TitleDrop Corporate Conspiracy]].

What exactly this plot entails varies. The conspiracy may be [[ArmsDealer selling armaments]] to incite WarForFunAndProfit, they may be [[RealEstateScam manipulating property value]] to [[VillainousGentrification gentrify the neighborhood]] and KillThePoor, they may be PlayingWithSyringes to make {{Super Soldier}}s and TakeOverTheWorld... what counts is that they're evil ([[BenevolentConspiracy again, with a few exceptions]]), and they're secret.

*** ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'': Le Chiffre is a terrorist banker affiliated with [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Quantum]] and a mysterious man named Mr. White, who happens to be the head of Quantum. His group has financed criminal groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Lord's Resistance Army, and has profited from the activities it sponsors, such as when they shorted airline stocks after the 9/11 attacks.

*** The titular criminal organization is up to its shenanigans again in ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', as [[spoiler:they're the ones who have bankrolled a joint intelligence-sharing program between the world's leading spy agencies. With the backdoor access they'll have, it would enable them to permanently stay ahead of anyone who is trying to investigate them. Quantum is also revealed to be a sub-unit of SPECTRE, as they were the ones who financed Raoul Silva's cyber-terrorism activities in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'']].

** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': Mr. Osato, president of Osato Chemicals, is secretly allied with [[NebulousEvilOrganisation SPECTRE]] and allows them to use his company as a front for their EvilPlan to bring about WorldWarIII.
** ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'': [[DiabolicalMastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld]] kidnaps and impersonates the reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte, using his business empire and space research facility to build and launch a KillSat to destroy nuclear weapons in China, the Soviet Union and the United States, then propose "[[AuctionOfEvil an international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder]]."

** ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'': Dominic Greene, the president of Greene Planet, has known links to [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Quantum]] and is plotting to seize control of Bolivia's water supply and create an artificial drought by [[TheCoup having its government overthrown]].

** It continues in ''Caliban's War'' with Moa-Kwik (who were actually part of Protogen). In this case they try to weaponize the Protomolecule by creating {{Super Soldier}}s, reigniting hostilities between Earth and Mars.

* This was [=ComStar's=] role in the early years of ''TabletopGame/Battletech''. Supposedly just the company that ran the SubspaceAnsible, they were also a religious order who believed that there would be a coming catatrophy that would reduce the Inner Sphere to ruin, and that they would be the ones to pick up the pieces. Because of that, they played the different Successor States against each other (easy to do when you've got a monopoly on interplanetary communications). They were eventually found out after the Clan invasion (notably because [=Comstar's=] leader at the time tried to [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double-cross the Inner Sphere and the Clans at the same time]] and after some internal cleaning promised they wouldn't do things like that anymore. Nobody really believes them. On a smaller scale, {{Mega Corp}}s like Defiance Industries, Starcorp, and Irain Battlemechs regularly perform acts of espionage and sabotage against each other, trying to learn or steal new research in order to get a leg up on the competition.

* This was [=ComStar's=] role in the early years of ''TabletopGame/Battletech''. Supposedly just the company that ran the SubspaceAnsible, they were also a religious order who believed that there would be a coming catatrophy that would reduce the Inner Sphere to ruin, and that they would be the ones to pick up the pieces. Because of that, they played the different Successor States against each other (easy to do when you've got a monopoly on interplanetary communications). They were eventually found out after the Clan invasion (notably because [=Comstar's=] leader at the time tried to [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double-cross the Inner Sphere and the Clans at the same time]] and after some internal cleaning promised they wouldn't do things like that anymore. Nobody really believes them. On a smaller scale, MegaCorps like Defiance Industries, Starcorp, and Irain Battlemechs regularly perform acts of espionage and sabotage against each other, trying to learn or steal new research in order to get a leg up on the competition.

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': On the surface, IOI is just like any other competitor for Halliday's Egg, and ownership of the [[{{Cyberspace}} OASIS]], albeit with manpower and resources that give them a huge edge in the game. This was apparently not enough for them, though, as they also engaged in stealing user data, attacking Wade Watt's real world home in an attempt to kill him, actually killing another teenaged player by having mercenaries throw him off the balcony of his apartment, buying up people's debts in order to put them in indentured servitude, and grand scale cheating by closing down any area of the OASIS that might contain a clue to Halliday's game. This all ultimately comes to light when the game ends with Wade in control, and its hinted that the company's lawyers will be scrambling to prevent IOI from losing all access to the OASIS and thus the internet.

** A lot of people die in Leviathan Wakes thanks to Protogen's plan to test out the Protomolecule by unleashing it on the entire population of Eros. Just their distraction plan of starting a war between Earth, Mars and the Belt kills thousands, and then there's the population of Eros.
** It continues in Caliban's War with Moa-Kwik (who were actually part of Protogen). In this case they try to weaponize the Protomolecule by creating {{Super Soldier}}s, reigniting hostilities between Earth and Mars.

A subtrope of TheConspiracy and CapitalismIsBad. May be connected to a GovernmentConspiracy if the writer wants to invoke the "Military-Industrial Complex". See also CorruptCorporateExecutive, EvilInc.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': [[spoiler:Veidt Industries is a rare [[BenevolentConspiracy benevolent example]]. Their CEO [[HonestCorporateExecutive Ozymandias]] spends all their resources on a plan to [[WellIntentionedExtremist save the world from nuclear annihilation]] by killing all of New York City.]]

* ''Anime/BloodPlus'': Cinq Fleches is ostensibly a mere pharmecudical corporation, but also deals in food production and genetic engineering -- both of which they use to turn humans into [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chiropterans]] via [[MayContainEvil GM food]].

* ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'' has an interesting example of an ideological Corporate Conspiracy. As part of his plot to take down Japan's upper class, Suitengu uses the Tenogu MegaCorp to [[MayContainEvil contaminate products with the]] [[PsychoSerum Euphoric Virus]], causing the murder rate to skyrocket.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Paradias/Domo is an AncientConspiracy that owns [[MegaCorp the richest and most powerful company in the world]], along with ''every other company in the world''. It's all a front for their {{Cult}} devoted to a soul-devouring god.

* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'': [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Null]] earned his title as "The Man Who Sold The World" when his company made a deal with a SwarmOfAlienLocusts to assist in the smooth and easy conquest of Earth in exchange for the technology to move their business off world. That their [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Maligna]] planned to feast on the human race didn't seem to bother him at all. He later did this again with the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse. Someone should really take his business license away.

* ''Film/JamesBond'':