- Business prosecutions fell to a record low in 2022, despite many apparent instances of wrongdoing, such as healthcare fraud and price gouging.
- Out of the over 4,000 federal white-collar prosecutions last year, only 31 defendants were businesses or corporate entities — less than 1%.
- The Biden Justice Department has made it clear that its priority for corporate criminal enforcement is “going after individuals” rather than institutions.
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams from Raw Story writes:
Despite the Biden administration’s pledge to crack down on corporate crime, a new analysis of Justice Department data shows that business prosecutions fell to a record low in fiscal year 2022 even as there appeared to be no shortage of wrongdoing—from healthcare fraud to large-scale price gouging.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonprofit data-gathering outfit, noted Thursday that out of the more than 4,000 federal white-collar prosecutions last year, “under 1% or only 31 of these defendants were businesses or corporate entities.”
“This is the lowest number of criminal prosecutions of business entities for white-collar offenses since federal prosecutor tracking began for these in FY 2004,” TRAC observed. “The decision to criminally charge a business in contrast to an individual for engaging in white-collar criminal activity is exceedingly rare (just 1%).”
TRAC also found that “the prosecution of white-collar offenders in FY 2022 reached a new all-time low since tracking began during the Reagan administration…”
See full story here.
Categories: Business, Economy, Government, Labor, Politics, Society
Economic Left 
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