Prosecutions drop for US white-collar crime
Christian Science Monitor
08/31/06
It's the kind of announcement that should put white-collar criminals on notice. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now investigating more than 80 companies in the growing stock-option scandal. The government has charged officials at two companies for backdating options- - a practice that funneled guaranteed profits to executives. More indictments are expected. But far from ratcheting up the fight against financial wrongdoing, the federal government is actually shifting resources away from it. The number of white-collar crime prosecutions is down 28 percent from five years ago, according to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The reason? The government's focus on homeland security, experts say. In the same period white-collar crime prosecutions fell, for instance, immigration prosecutions more than doubled... [editor's note: Once more, this nebulous "war on terror" (like its cousin, the war on [some] drugs) diverts law enforcement away from protecting lives and property from real criminals. Intentionally? - SAT]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0831/p03s02-usju.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
08/31/06
It's the kind of announcement that should put white-collar criminals on notice. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now investigating more than 80 companies in the growing stock-option scandal. The government has charged officials at two companies for backdating options- - a practice that funneled guaranteed profits to executives. More indictments are expected. But far from ratcheting up the fight against financial wrongdoing, the federal government is actually shifting resources away from it. The number of white-collar crime prosecutions is down 28 percent from five years ago, according to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The reason? The government's focus on homeland security, experts say. In the same period white-collar crime prosecutions fell, for instance, immigration prosecutions more than doubled... [editor's note: Once more, this nebulous "war on terror" (like its cousin, the war on [some] drugs) diverts law enforcement away from protecting lives and property from real criminals. Intentionally? - SAT]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0831/p03s02-usju.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 1. Sep, 14:09
