Percent Change from 5 years ago (Including Magistrate Court)
-24.6
Percent Change from 5 years ago (Excluding Magistrate Court)
-22.8
Table 1. Criminal White Collar Crime Convictions
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during May 2022 the government reported 325 new white collar crime convictions.
According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 22.6 percent over the previous month.
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.
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 2022 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in
the previous year, the number of convictions was up (27.2%).
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 24.6 percent from levels reported in 2017.
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.
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 May 2022 was for "Fraud-Other", accounting for 19.1 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Fraud-Tax" (12.6%), "Fraud-Federal Program" (11.1%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (10.5%), "Fraud-Health Care" (10.5%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Aggravated" (8.9%), "Fraud-Other Business" (5.5%), "Fraud-Securities" (4.9%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Other" (3.1%), "Fraud-Other Investment" (2.8%), "Fraud-Computer" (2.5%), "Fraud-Consumer" (2.5%), "Fraud-Bankruptcy" (2.2%).
See Figure 2.
The lead investigative agency for white collar crime convictions in May 2022
was FBI accounting for 37 percent of convictions.
Other agencies with substantial numbers of white collar crime convictions were:
IRS (14% ), Postal (10%), SecServ (8%), SSA (6%).
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 May 2022, no defendants in white collar crime cases for these matters were convicted 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.
White Collar Crime Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In May 2022, 325 defendants in new cases
for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during May 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 May.
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 May 2022.
"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 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Health Care Fraud" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1347.
"Health Care Fraud" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1347 was ranked 7 a year ago, while it was ranked 9 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "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 5 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest
increase in convictions — up 136.4 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 26 U.S.C Section 7202
that involves " Willful failure to collect or pay over tax ".
This was the same statute that had the largest increase — 85.7 % — 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 13.6 percent — was
" Attempt to evade or defeat tax " (Title 26 U.S.C Section 7201 ).
Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in convictions — 50.3 percent — was
for convictions where the lead charge was " Fraud and related activity - access devices " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1029 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In May 2022 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government obtained 118.8 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 Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids) — with 636 convictions as compared with 118.8 convictions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during May 2022.
The District of Rhode Island ranked 2nd.
District of South Carolina is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were
Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis), now ranked
4th
, and Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
at 9th
In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 12th one year ago and 8th and 4th 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 — 412.8 percent — was
Southern District of Florida (Miami).
Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 240 percent — was
Rhode Island .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the
largest drop in the rate of white collar crime convictions — 2.6 percent — was
Middle District of Pennsylvania (Scranton).
But over the past five years,
Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
showed the largest drop — 50.6 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 May 2022 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 white collar crime convictions per capita, while the remaining 10 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 19 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Robert Bryan Harwell in the District of South Carolina ranked 1st with 10 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
Judge Joseph Fletcher Anderson, Jr. in the District of South Carolina ranked 2nd with 7 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
Judge Reed Charles O'Connor in the Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth) ranked 3rd with 6 convicted in white collar crime convictions.