White Collar Prosecutions Fall to Lowest in 20 Years – “The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during April 2018 the government reported 494 new white collar crime prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this number is down 14.4 percent over the previous month. Examining trends over the first seven months of FY 2018, the government reported a total of 3,249 new white collar crime prosecutions. If this level of activity continues at the same pace, the annual total of prosecutions will be 5,570 for this fiscal year – down from last year. These recent trends continue a long term slide in the level of federal fraud prosecutions. Indeed, current levels represent the lowest number of white collar prosecutions in more than 20 years. Overall, the data show that prosecutions are down 31.3 percent from the level of 8,108 reported in 2008 and down 40.8 percent from the level of 9,412 reported in 1998….”

See also ProPublica and The New York Times co-published report: Why Manafort and Cohen Thought They’d Get Away With It – It takes a special counsel to actually catch white-collar criminals.  “…Resources have been stripped from white-collar enforcement. The FBI shifted agents to work on international terror in the wake of 9/11. White-collar cases made up about one-tenth of the Justice Department’s cases in recent years, compared with one-fifth in the early 1990s. The IRS’ criminal enforcement capabilities have been decimated by years of budget cuts and attrition. The Federal Election Commission is a toothless organization that is widely flouted. No wonder Cohen and Manafort were so brazen. They must have felt they had impunity…”