The collapse of Enron
has thrust white-collar crime back into the national spotlight
for the first time since the S&L scandal over a decade ago.
But what sort of justice do white-collar criminals face? In Fortune
magazine's March 18th cover story, writer Clifton Leaf and a team
of Fortune reporters closely examined the shortcomings in the
federal enforcement of white-collar crime laws. Using TRAC data,
Leaf et al. showed that the Justice Department declined to prosecute
over 64% of white-collar crime cases referred by SEC attorneys.
The Fortune reporters also employed TRAC data to bolster their
claim that white-collar criminals, despite being convicted of
egregious violations of the law, seldom spend time behind bars.
