White Collar Crime Convictions for December 2017
372 |
4.5 |
-11.0 |
-29.7 |
-28.3 |
Table 1. Criminal White Collar Crime Convictions
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during December 2017 the government reported 372 new white collar crime convictions.
According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 4.5 percent over the previous month.
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White Collar Crime
This report summarizes the government's recent efforts when it comes to combating white
collar crime — the number of such cases, the investigative agencies involved, the laws cited, the
busiest federal districts and the busiest federal judges.
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The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted for white collar crime-related offenses 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 2017 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in
the previous year, the number of convictions was down (-11%).
Convictions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago.
Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are down 29.7 percent from levels reported in 2012.
The decrease from the levels five years ago in white collar crime convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1.
The vertical bars in Figure 1
represent the number of white collar crime convictions 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.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in White Collar Crime Convictions
Within the broad category of white collar crime, cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
Case types within white collar crime are
| Federal Procurement Fraud |
| Federal Program Fraud |
| Tax Fraud |
| Arson for Profit |
| Other Insurance Fraud |
| Financial Institution Fraud |
| Bankruptcy Fraud |
| Advance Fee Schemes |
| Other Fraud Against Businesses |
| Consumer Fraud |
| Securities Fraud |
| Commodities Fraud |
| Other Investment Fraud |
| Antitrust Violations - Other |
| Computer Fraud |
| Health Care Fraud |
| Fraud Against Insurance Providers |
| Intellectual Property Violations |
| Insider Fraud Against Insurance Providers |
| MEWA (Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements) Fraud/MET |
| Antitrust Violations - Airlines |
| Antitrust Violations - Banking |
| Antitrust Violations - Defense Procurement |
| Antitrust Violations - Extraterritorial Application Of |
| Antitrust Violations - Finance Markets, Other than Banking |
| Telemarketing Fraud |
| Corporate Fraud |
| Identity Theft |
| Aggravated Identity Theft |
| Other White Collar Crime/Fraud |
The largest number of convictions of these matters in December 2017 was for "Fraud-Other", accounting for 23.4 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Fraud-Tax" (11.8%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (11%), "Fraud-Health Care" (11%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Aggravated" (10.8%), "Fraud-Federal Program" (9.7%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Other" (5.1%), "Fraud-Other Business" (4%), "Fraud-Computer" (2.7%), "Fraud-Bankruptcy" (2.4%).
See Figure 2.
The lead investigative agency for white collar crime convictions in December 2017
was FBI accounting for 26 percent of convictions.
Other agencies with substantial numbers of white collar crime convictions were:
IRS (15% ), SecServ (12%), Postal (8%).
See Figure 3.
Figure 2. Specific Types of Convictions
Figure 3. Convictions by Investigative Agency
White Collar Crime Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In December 2017, 2 defendants
in white collar crime 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 December the most frequently cited lead charge was
Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028 involving "Aggravated Identity Theft". This was the lead charge
for 50 percent of all magistrate convictions in December.
White Collar Crime Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In December 2017, 370 defendants in new cases
for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during December there
were an additional 0 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 December.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the convictions of white collar crime matters
filed in U.S. District Court during December 2017.
Table 2. Top Charges for Convictions
"Fraud by wire, radio, or television" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343) was the most frequent recorded lead charge.
"Fraud by wire, radio, or television" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 371.
"Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 371 was ranked 7 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349.
"Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 5 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest
increase in convictions — up 34.4 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028
that involves " Aggravated Identity Theft ".
This was the same statute that had the largest increase — 50.9 % — when compared with five years ago.
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest
decline in convictions compared to one year ago — down 30 percent — was
" Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1341 ).
This was the same statute that had the largest decrease — 63.8 % — when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In December 2017 the Justice Department said the government obtained 137.4 white collar crime convictions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of white collar crime convictions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the
largest number of convictions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3.
Districts must have at least 5 white collar crime convictions to receive a ranking.
Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The Southern District of New York (Manhattan) — with 1006 convictions as compared with 137.4 convictions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during December 2017.
The Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) ranked 2nd.
The Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) was ranked 9 a year ago.
Western District of Virginia (Roanoke) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were
Southern District of New York (Manhattan), now ranked
1st
, and Kansas
at 5th
In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 29th one year ago and 21st and 37th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth
in the rate of white collar crime convictions compared to one year ago — 184.9 percent — was
Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 200 percent — was
Middle District of Georgia (Macon).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the
largest drop in the rate of white collar crime convictions — 41 percent — was
Southern District of Florida (Miami).
But over the past five years,
Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock)
showed the largest drop — 33.3 percent.
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 white collar crime crime cases resulting in convictions of this type during December 2017 are shown in Table 4.
A total of 12 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of white collar crime convictions per capita, while the remaining 3 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 15 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judges Paul Gregory Byron in the Middle District of Florida (Tampa), Jed Saul Rakoff in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Alison Julie Nathan in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and Carmen Consuelo Cerezo in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 1st with 6 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
Report Generated: January 24, 2018