News from TRAC

White-Collar Crime Prosecutions for 2021 Continue Long Term Decline

(09 Aug 2021) The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during the first nine months of FY 2021 the government reported 3,545 new white-collar crime prosecutions. If this activity continues at the same pace, the annual total of prosecutions will be 4,727 for this fiscal year. According to the case-by-case information obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this estimate is up 11 percent over the past fiscal year when the pandemic temporarily depressed prosecution levels. But compared to longer term trends, white-collar prosecutions appear to have continued their downward decline.

Compared to five years ago when there were 6,253 such prosecutions, the estimate of FY 2021 is down 24.4 percent. Prosecutions over the past year are lower than they were ten years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 53.5 percent from the level of 10,162 reported in 2011 and down 50.3 percent from the level of 9,507 reported in 2001. See TRAC's March 2020 report detailing earlier declining corporate and white-collar prosecutions.

In over a third (35.4%) of these prosecutions thus far during FY 2021 the lead investigative agency was the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Other lead investigative agencies among the top five were the Internal Revenue Service (13.1%), the Postal Service (10.3%), the Secret Service (8.2%), and Health and Human Services (5.4%).

The District of Rhode Island was the most active thus far in FY 2021. The Western District of Virginia (Roanoke) ranked 2nd, while the Southern District of Florida (Miami) now ranks 3rd.

To read the full report, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/655

In addition to these most recent figures, TRAC continues to offer free monthly reports on selected government agencies such as the FBI, ATF, DHS and the IRS. TRAC's reports also monitor program categories such as immigration, drugs, weapons, and terrorism. Even more detailed criminal enforcement information for the period from FY 1986 through June 2021 is available to TRACFed subscribers via Express and Going Deeper tools. Go to https://tracfed.syr.edu for more information.

Customized reports for a specific agency, district, program, lead charge or judge are available via the TRAC Data Interpreter, either as part of a TRACFed subscription or on a per-report basis. Go to

https://trac.syr.edu/interpreter

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