With the change of presidential administrations in January 2017,
it was expected that the priorities of the U. S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) would shift away from white-collar crime enforcement
and towards immigration, violent crime, and narcotics enforcement.
But recent data actually show a significant uptick in both
prosecutions and convictions of individuals by the DOJ Criminal
Division’s Fraud Section in 2018 over the previous two years.
Moreover, the amount of money the DOJ recovered from companies
through Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) or Non-Prosecution
Agreements (NPAs) skyrocketed in 2018 .
The Fraud Section’s 2018 year-in-review report shows
that the Section charged 406 individuals in 2018, a roughly 35
percent increase over the number charged in both 2016 and 2017. 258
individuals pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial in 2018, a 28
percent increase over 2016 and a 10 percent increase over 2017.
While much of the increase in prosecutions is
