Deputy AG Monaco to DOJ Prosecutors: "Be Bold"

Department's Number 2 Official Announces "Corporate Crime Crackdown"

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s corporate crime enforcement announcement yesterday is welcome news (as is the accompanying memo).

The Justice Department’s reasserted emphasis on holding individuals accountable puts executives on notice, and its realization that leniency with corporate offenders is fueling recidivism heralds a potential increase in prosecutions, in particular for corporations that violate agreements they make with the government to avoid criminal indictments.

I focused on this second point in my Public Citizen press statement:

“Under Trump, corporate crime enforcement plunged to a quarter-century low. The Biden Department of Justice recognizing that leniency has failed to deter corporate repeat offenders is an excellent sign. Holding corporations to the agreements they make with the Justice Department – and forcing those that breach agreements to face prosecution, as the agreements corporations sign say they will – absolutely is a step in the right direction. But even better would be if prosecutors stopped using corporate deferred and nonprosecution agreements in all but the most exceptional circumstances.”

I went into a bit more detail on Twitter (truly best forum for nuanced views on complex policies):

Rick Claypool @RickClaypool

Deputy AG Monaco says 10-20% corporate crime cases involve repeat offenders. As my @Public_Citizen research shows, leniency agreements don't deter corporate crime. Their power should not be an excuse for letting corporations escape accountability. citizen.org/article/soft-o…

My conversation with Reuters was a bit more circumspect.

The policy changes are "steps in the right direction," said Rick Claypool of the watchdog group Public Citizen. Claypool said the Justice Department "has quite a hill to climb" to get back to how it handled white-collar crime under Democratic former President Barack Obama, "let alone try to shift course to a prosecutorial scheme that companies actually fear."

But to be clear, I do agree with Jesse Eisinger that this represents meaningful progress that worthy of celebration.

Jesse Eisinger @eisingerj

Lisa Monaco is the most important DOJ official not named Garland. This is a real rhetorical break from corporate/white-collar enforcement messaging. A very positive development but it has to be backed by giving prosecutors the tools and incentives to go after the biggest cases.

Rick Claypool @RickClaypool

This excerpt from today's @TheJusticeDept speech calling on prosecutors not to back down from bringing cases against corporations reads like a passage from @eisingerj's Chickenshit Club https://t.co/z6eDEV8cAl https://t.co/o6i7Fia4q0

Bloomberg News is calling it a “corporate crime crackdown.” But Monaco herself describes it far more accurately as “only the first steps.”

The next steps, it seems, will be guided by the “Corporate Crime Advisory Group” that department is internally assembling.

You can watch Deputy AG Monaco’s full speech announcing the new corporate crime enforcement policy changes here: