The Department of Justice has steadily reduced the number of corporate criminals it prosecutes every year, despite there being no signs of improved behavior by the business community.
Syracuse University released a report Tuesday showing that the DOJ took legal action against only 237 corporate defendants in 2014—a 29% drop from 2004.
The number of referrals sent to US Attorneys to prosecute businesses, meanwhile, actually increased slightly over the decade. The university found 2,171 referrals in 2014–up from 2,116 in 2004–and more than nine times the number of actual prosecutions carried out by the department last year.
Last month, in an attempt to push back against criticism that the administration has been soft on white-collar crime, the DOJ released new guidelines on corporate prosecutions. That move, however, came after the statue of limitations had expired on massive crimes allegedly committed by financial institutions in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis.
