Prosecutions for September 2015
Referring Agency: Internal Revenue Service
Table 1. Criminal Prosecutions
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during September 2015 the government reported 91 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 35.5 percent 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 2015 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in
the previous year, the number of filings was down (-3.5%).
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 8.5 percent from levels reported in 2010.
The growth in
these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases
are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in
prosecutions is 6.6 percent instead of 8.5 percent.
The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases
by the Justice Department.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The increase 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 September 2015 was for "Fraud-Tax", accounting for 41.8 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (31.9%), "
Money Laundering-Other" (5.5%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Local" (2.2%), "Fraud-Consumer" (2.2%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.2%), "Fraud-Other" (2.2%), "Fraud-Other Business" (2.2%).
See Figure 2.
Figure 2. Specific Types of Prosecutions
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In September 2015, 5 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 September the most frequently cited lead charge was
Title 18 U.S.C Section 1029 involving "Fraud and related activity - access devices". This was the lead charge
for 20 percent of all magistrate filings in September.
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In September 2015, 86 defendants in new cases
for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during September there
were an additional 12 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 September.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters
filed in U.S. District Court during September 2015 referred by the Internal Revenue Service.
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 "Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349.
Ranked 3rd were "False, fictitious or fraudulent claims" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 287 and "Fraud by wire, radio, or television" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In September 2015 the Justice Department said the government brought 37.5 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.
Table 3. Top 10 Districts
The Southern District of New York (Manhattan) — with 8 prosecutions — was the most active during September 2015.
The District of New Jersey ranked 2nd.
Southern District of Alabama (Mobile), Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit), Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and District of Rhode Island are now ranking 3rd.
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 September 2015 are shown in Table 4.
A total of 9 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings , while the remaining 8 judges were from other districts.
(Because of ties, there were a total of 17 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Katherine Bolan Forrest in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ranked 1st with 6 defendants in cases.
Judge William E. Smith in the District of Rhode Island ranked 2nd with 4 defendants in cases.
Judges Joel Harvey Slomsky in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and Thomas A. Varlan in the Eastern District of Tennessee (Knoxville) ranked 3rd with 3 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: October 27, 2015