Prosecutions for July 2009
Referring Agency: Internal Revenue Service
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2009 the government reported 106 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Internal Revenue Service. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 10.9% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. (See Table 1)
When monthly 2009 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (4.4 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 0.3 percent from levels reported in 2004.
The leveling out from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in July 2009 was for "Fraud-Tax", accounting for 46.2 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (13.2%), " Fraud-Financial Institution" (10.4%), "Immigration" (4.7%), "Money Laundering-Other" (4.7%), "Fraud-Health Care" (3.8%), "Theft-Government Property" (3.8%), "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (2.8%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (2.8%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2009, 7 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in July the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 641 involving the "Public money, property or records". This was the lead charge for 57.1 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2009, 99 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 1 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during July.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during July 2009referred by the Internal Revenue Service.
Lead Charge Count Rank 26 USC 7206 - Fraud and False statements 18 1 More 26 USC 7201 - Attempt to evade or defeat tax 12 2 More 18 USC 982 - Criminal forfeiture 10 3 More 26 USC 7203 - Willful failure to file return, supply information 6 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 5 5 More 18 USC 981 - Civil Forfeiture 5 5 More 31 USC 5324 - Structuring transactions to evade reporting requir 5 5 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 4 8 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 4 8 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 3 10 More 26 USC 7202 - Willful failure to collect or pay over tax 3 10 More
Table 2: Top charges filed
"Fraud and False statements" (Title 26 U.S.C Section 7206) was the most frequent recorded lead charge.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Attempt to evade or defeat tax" under Title 26 U.S.C Section 7201.
Ranked 3rd was "Criminal forfeiture" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 982.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2009 the Justice Department said the government brought 40.2 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions of this type last month are shown in Table 3.
The District of Kansas—with 16 prosecutions—was the most active during July 2009.
The Middle District of Florida (Tampa) and District of Utah ranked 2nd.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during July 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Crow, Sam A. Kansas 15 1 More Sam, David Utah 4 2 More Montalvo, Frank Texas, W 3 3 More Yeakel, Earl Leroy III Texas, W 3 3 More Martinez, Ricardo S. Wash, W 3 3 More Steele, John E. Fla, M 2 6 More Howard, Marcia Morales Fla, M 2 6 More Carnes, Julie E. Ga, N 2 6 More Hamilton, David F. Ind, S 2 6 More Ponsor, Michael Adrian Mass 2 6 More Gardephe, Paul G. N. Y., S 2 6 More Rose, Thomas M. Ohio, S 2 6 More Diamond, Gustave Penn, W 2 6 More Kimball, Dale A. Utah 2 6 More
Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 12 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings , while the remaining 2 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 14 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Sam A. Crow in the District of Kansas ranked 1st with 15 defendants in cases.
Judge David Sam in the District of Utah ranked 2nd with 4 defendants in cases.
Judges Frank Montalvo in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio), Earl Leroy Yeakel III in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) and Ricardo S. Martinez in the Western District of Washington (Seattle) ranked 3rd with 3 defendants in cases.
