Latest news with #whiteCollarCrime
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Justice Department's New White Collar Crime Priorities
Matthew R. Galeotti, the Head of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department has issued a memorandum describing the Justice Department's new policies and enforcement priorities in dealing with collar crime. In describing its areas of focus, the memorandum states 'The Criminal Division must be laser-focused on the most urgent criminal threats to the country. Therefore consistent with the enforcement policies and priorities of this Administration, the Criminal Division will prioritize investigating and prosecuting corporate crime in areas that will have the greatest impact in protecting American Citizens and companies and promoting U.S. interests.' The memorandum lists the following ten areas of white collar crime which the Justice Department is prioritizing: The inclusion of bribery in the list of priorities is noteworthy in the light of President Trump's executive order suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on the basis of it allegedly harming American business competitiveness in international business. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act criminalizes bribery of foreign officials by American companies. Nor is it reflected in the order to the Manhattan US Attorney to dismiss the bribery charges against NY major Eric Adams that resulted in the resignation of US Attorney Danielle Sassoon who chose to resign rather than follow such an order. Notably missing from the list of priorities is prosecution of income tax fraud. This is particularly noteworthy in the light of a 2021 Treasury report that estimated that the top 1% of earners account for over $160 billion dollars in unpaid taxes annually. However, this is not surprising on the heels of DOGE plans to cut up to 25% of the IRS staff including draconian cuts to the IRS' Criminal Investigations unit which plays an essential role in combating drug and human trafficking, terrorism, tax crimes, financial crimes and money laundering. Also totally missing from the list of priorities is the prosecution of environmental crimes although the global impact of environmental crimes has been estimated by the Financial Action Task Force, a global organization that sets international standards to fight money laundering and terrorist financing to be as high as $281 billion not to mention the cost to society in the destruction of the environment, contamination of naturl resources and public health dangers. In a clear indication of the new goals of the Justice Department, the memorandum states that prosecutors 'must avoid overreach that punishes risk-taking and hinders innovation.' It goes on to say that the Justice Department 'must strike an appropriate balance between the need to effectively identify, investigate, and prosecute corporate and individuals' criminal wrongdoing while minimizing unnecessary burdens on American enterprise.' The famous 2015 memorandum of Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates entitled 'Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing' which was prompted by criticism of the Justice Department's failure to effectively prosecute individuals in response to the 2008 financial meltdown stressed the intention to prioritize prosecution of individuals for corporate wrongdoing rather than just the corporations themselves. Despite the good intentions to prosecute individuals and thereby provide a true disincentive for white collar criminals to avoid committing such crimes, there was little change in the numbers of individuals prosecuted as compared to actions against corporations which cannot be jailed. For example, 75% of the prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ( the law President Trump is presently suspending enforcement of) in the six years prior to the Yates memorandum were against companies rather than individuals within the companies and from 2015 to 2024 the number of prosecutions against companies rather than their employees or officers remained the same. Similar to the Yates memorandum, the Galeotti memorandum also states that the Justice Department's 'first priority is to prosecute individual criminals. It is individuals – whether executive, officers or employees of companies – who commit these crimes, often at the expense of shareholders, workers, and American investors and consumers. The Criminal Division will investigate these individual wrongdoers relentlessly to hold them accountable.' The words are laudable as they were in the Yates memo. Whether they will turn into action is another matter. The Galeotti memorandum concludes by saying 'Focused, fair, and efficient white-collar enforcement promotes American economic and national security interests while protecting American taxpayers, investors, consumers, and businesses. Results of the Criminal Division's efforts in this regard will be measured by the practical benefits brought to bear for all relevant parties, not symbolic resolutions against shell entities or running up the scoreboard. We will foster cooperative relationships with those in industry that align with the Department in this pursuit, and we will root out the criminal element that works against these goals. As in everything we do, we will do so with integrity and in the interests of justice.' Actions, however, speak louder than words. On the same day that the Galeotti Memorandum was issued, the FBI, the primary criminal investigative arm of the Justice Department, instructed its agents to target their efforts on immigration enforcement and less time on white collar crime enforcement.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Quote of the Day: Pardons Prop Up Crimes of a Certain Collar
'Of course, stealing by fraud is still stealing. It's just that this is the way rich people do it.' BARBARA L. MCQUADE, a U.S. attorney in Michigan during the Obama administration, on how President Trump's pardons of white-collar criminals could normalize nonviolent offenses.
CBS News
4 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Trump's pardons this term include these convicted fraudsters and supporters
Washington — President Trump this week has issued pardons and commutations for several convicted fraudsters, the latest in a series of pardons for white-collar criminals in his second term, claiming in many cases that they were unfairly targeted for being his supporters. Here are some of the people Mr. Trump has used his clemency power on: Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST -- Season:4 -- Pictured: (l-r) Todd Chrisley, Julie Chrisley -- Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Mr. Trump said on May 27 that he would pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were imprisoned after being sentenced in 2022 on bank fraud and tax evasion charges. The couple, who starred on "Chrisley Knows Best," submitted false financial statements to obtain more than $30 million in personal loans, which they spent on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, the Justice Department said. The couple also concealed their income from the IRS to avoid paying nearly $500,000 in delinquent taxes, while also failing to file tax returns and pay taxes from 2013 through 2016. The couple pleaded not guilty. In a video posted by a White House aide, Mr. Trump can be heard speaking with the Chrisleys' children, saying "your parents are going to be free and clean. I hope we can do it by tomorrow." The couple's daughter, Savannah, had been seeking a pardon for her parents, and has compared their case to the president's legal troubles. Michael Grimm Former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm speaks with reporters at his campaign headquarters, on New York's primary Election Day, June 26, 2018 in the Staten Island borough of New York City. Drew Angerer / Getty Images The White House said on May 28 that Mr. Trump had pardoned former Rep. Michael Grimm of New York, who had pleaded guilty in 2014 to tax fraud and related charges. Prosecutors alleged he underreported wages and revenue to the government, and that he filed false tax documents at a restaurant he owned before serving in Congress. Despite the indictment, Grimm was reelected in 2014, although he pleaded guilty one month later and resigned in January 2015. He served eight months in prison. Grimm attempted a comeback run in 2018, but lost the GOP primary for his Staten Island and southern Brooklyn district. Grimm last year was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from a horse while playing polo. Former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins Culpeper County, Virginia, Sheriff Scott Jenkins speaks during a gun rights rally organized by The Virginia Citizens Defense League on Capitol Square near the state capital building January 20, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images On May 26, the president said he was pardoning a former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who was sentenced to prison in March on fraud and bribery charges. Jenkins took $75,000 worth of bribes, federal prosecutors said, giving badges to eight untrained and unvetted individuals from whom he had allegedly accepted cash and campaign contributions. Jenkins pleaded not guilty, and denied any connection between taking payments and issuing badges at trial. Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Jenkins, a longstanding supporter of the president's, "is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn't deserve to spend a single day in jail." "He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left 'monsters,' and 'left for dead,'" Mr. Trump added. Ex-Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, leaves the O'Neill House Office Building after testifying to the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on July 31, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty Images Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, was convicted in 2018 for his connection to a scheme to fraudulently issue more than $60 million of tribal bonds to the business arm of a South Dakota-based Native American tribe. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Archer — who pleaded not guilty — appealed his case, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 2024 refused to hear his attempt to overturn his conviction. As Mr. Trump prepared to sign the pardon, Trump staff secretary Will Scharf said "the tone and tenor" of the case against Archer "changed dramatically after he began to cooperate with congressional investigators and serve as a witness against Hunter Biden and the Biden family." "Many people have asked me to do this," Mr. Trump said before signing the pardon. "I think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the record, studied the records, and he was. He was a victim of a crime, as far as I'm concerned. So we're going to undo that." Hunter Biden associate Jason Galanis Jason Galanis testifies on a video link from prison before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Jose Luis Magana / AP Jason Galanis was sentenced in 2020 to over a decade of prison time for his alleged involvement in several fraud schemes, including the same one as Archer involving Native American tribal bonds. Mr. Trump commuted his sentence to time served. Galanis pleaded guilty. Like Archer, Galanis testified in a House GOP-led investigation into Hunter Biden, describing himself as a former business partner of the then-president's son. Galanis said he, Biden and Archer hoped to make "billions," including by trading on Hunter Biden's family name. The younger Biden called Galanis a liar, and told House investigators he could only recall meeting Galanis "10 years ago for 30 minutes." Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now free from prison, is all but certain to lose his Illinois law license. (Credit: CBS) Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich received a full pardon from Mr. Trump in February, after the president had commuted his sentence at the end of his first term, in February 2020. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in December 2011 on 18 corruption charges, among them, an attempt to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat after he won the White House in 2008. Blagojevich and Mr. Trump have known each other for decades. Long before he ran for president, Mr. Trump donated to the former Illinois governor's campaigns, and Blagojevich at one point was also a contestant on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" in March and April 2010, while he was fighting the corruption charges. He was "fired" by Mr. Trump after about four weeks on the show. Trump even asked the other contestants, "Who thinks Rod is guilty?" Blagojevich pleaded not guilty and has long insisted he is innocent. Nevada state lawmaker Michelle Fiore Nevada Assemblywoman Michelle Fiore, R-Las Vegas, works in committee during the final day of the 77th Legislative session at the Legislative Building in Carson City, Nev., on Monday, June 3, 2013. Cathleen Allison / AP Mr. Trump also pardoned Michelle Fiore, a former city councilwoman and Nevada state lawmaker, in April. Fiore was accused of using money meant for a statue honoring police officers killed in the line of duty for her own personal expenses and was found guilty in October on wire fraud charges. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. Former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey Former Tennessee Sen. Brian Kelsey, left, arrives at federal court, Nov. 22, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. Mark Humphrey / AP In March, the president pardoned former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey, shortly after he had begun serving jail time for a campaign finance scheme. The Republican had pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges concerning his attempt to funnel campaign money from his state seat to a federal race for Congress, before trying to reverse the plea. "God used Donald Trump to save me from the weaponized Biden DOJ," Kelsey said in a post on X. Electric truck entrepreneur Trevor Milton Nikola Corp Founder Trevor Milton AP Photo/Lawrence Neumewister Earlier this year, Mr. Trump pardoned Nikola founder Trevor Milton, who was convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud for lying to investors in his electric truck company. Prosecutors allege Milton boosted the company's share price by heavily exaggerating its successes, including by falsely claiming Nikola had built a "fully functioning" prototype of an electric truck and posting misleading videos that made it look like the prototype could drive under its own power. He was charged in 2021, a year after some of the allegations were first raised by short-selling firm Hindenburg Research. Milton — who denied wrongdoing — was sentenced to four years in prison. But the president pardoned him in March, claiming he was targeted for being a Trump supporter. Milton had donated hundreds of thousands to a pro-Trump group in 2024. Ozy founder Carlos Watson File: Carlos Watson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ozy Media Inc., arrives at federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images The president commuted the prison sentence of Carlos Watson, who founded the digital media company Ozy, and was sentenced to almost a decade in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. Watson and his coworkers allegedly raised millions from investors by misrepresenting Ozy's finances. At one point, an Ozy employee allegedly impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs, aiming to convince the bank to invest in Ozy by talking up the success of its YouTube channel — an infamous story documented in a New York Times column. Mr. Trump commuted Watson's sentence to time served, shortly before he reported to prison. Watson pleaded not guilty, and maintained his innocence at trial. Paul Walczak In April, Mr. Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, who had been sentenced earlier that month to 18 months in prison for failing to pay over $10 million in taxes related to nursing homes he controlled. According to the Justice Department, Walczak — who pleaded guilty — was "not compliant with his tax obligations and instead used the withheld taxes to enrich himself." White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Walczak is an "entrepreneur targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics." Walczak's mother, Elizabeth Fago, is a donor to Mr. Trump and visited the White House at least twice in Mr. Trump's first term. According to The New York Times, Fago attended a $1 million a plate fundraiser for Mr. Trump shortly before Walczak was pardoned. Jeremy Hutchinson Mr. Trump pardoned former Arkansas state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who had been convicted on bribery and tax charges, on May 29. Hutchinson — the nephew of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson — pleaded guilty in two different bribery cases in 2019, acknowledging in court papers that he took payments from an orthodontic specialist and a healthcare charity and used his position as a lawmaker to back their interests. He also pleaded guilty to tax charges, Hutchinson was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison. Other cases dropped Outside of clemency, the Trump administration has moved to drop charges against a handful of others in recent months. The Justice Department moved to toss out charges against Republican former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who had been convicted of lying to the FBI. And in February, the Justice Department told federal prosecutors in New York to drop their corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
A New Generation Is Loving Steve Madden, and He Is Here for It
Steve Madden, the eponymous founder of the famous shoe brand — and a man with a somewhat complicated history — said he had never seen anything quite like this in his 35-year career. He did an interview with the 'Cutting Room Floor' fashion podcast that was posted online last week, and the reaction on social media (and beyond) has been overwhelmingly positive. 'Usually people are like 'what do you want from a con man?'' he said in a phone interview on Wednesday. But this time, 'people were calling me and they're like, 'Did you read the comments?'' he said. 'Some people want me to run for president.' He referred to the controversies and struggles he has been a part of over the years before pausing and adding 'It's nice to be appreciated.' Political office isn't in his future, but later in the phone interview he said that he would consider running 'for the president of the board in my building' after all this positive attention. In the podcast interview, Mr. Madden and the host, Recho Omondi, touched on a range of topics, including his past white-collar crimes and the current government. Clips of the interview have been viewed by millions of users on TikTok, and Ms. Omondi's Patreon, which is where the podcast is posted, received 'thousands' of new subscribers, she wrote in a recent post. In the days after the interview was released, stock in the Steve Madden brand rallied to its highest point in a month, and many TikTok users noted they were going to buy his shoes. In an emailed statement, the company said Google searches for 'Steve Madden' were up over 60 percent and website visits from organic search had increased by 10 percent. It's a case study in the best kind of press engagement, particularly for a brand that has, for years, been outside the trendy spotlight and more often associated with clearance aisles and outlet stores, said Matthew Quint, director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School. In the podcast interview, Mr. Madden owned up to the securities fraud he committed with Jordan Belfort, which landed him in prison in the early 2000s. (Mr. Belfort's story inspired Martin Scorsese's 2013 film 'The Wolf of Wall Street.') 'I was too ambitious, I was too greedy,' he said. 'I was complicit — I'm not blaming anybody.' On tariffs and the global trade war, he noted that policymakers, and in particular President Trump, 'fundamentally do not understand what they're doing.' He also embraced the brand's reputation for copying styles from luxury fashion houses at cheaper price points. 'It's like calling the Beatles a knockoff band because they would take a little bit from Motown and a little bit from Elvis,' he said in the podcast interview. On the day the podcast was released, Mr. Madden sued Adidas for its 'efforts to monopolize' stripes after the sneaker brand complained that two of Mr. Madden's sneaker designs, with two stripes instead of three, infringed its trademark on the three stripes. Most of the reaction to the podcast interview on TikTok and Reddit praised Mr. Madden's candor and his plain way of speaking. Others found it refreshing for a business leader to speak so bluntly about the current administration's policies. For a younger generation, the interview also served as a moment of discovery, with many learning for the first time about Mr. Madden — his background, his struggles — or just putting a face to a name they have seen or heard over the years, Mr. Quint said. 'Suddenly it's like, Oh, that's Steve the shoe guy?' he said. 'There's sort of a surprise factor in all of it — the uncovering of who he is and thinking of that brand in a new light.' Mr. Madden admitted that perhaps a younger generation was meeting him for the first time. 'I'm kind of like an author, an author that you know very well but you don't know what he looks like,' he said. 'Then they get to see me — they've been wearing my shoes forever but I'm a real guy. I'm a real guy who goes to the grocery store and curses too much, you know, and tries to be a good dad.' In fact, his story — already extensively covered in the media, in his autobiography and in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' — is seemingly so fresh for a younger generation that many TikTok users suggested Netflix should produce a documentary about him. During the podcast interview he was shown a pair of Alaïa shoes that his brand had replicated. His reaction was to ask, referring to his customers, 'Do you think some of my girls even know who Alaïa is?' That line struck many who viewed the interview as endearing. 'From Day 1, I have loved Steve Madden and now I love him even more,' Gabriella Masseran said in a TikTok post, reacting to the interview. 'He's for the girls,' she added, before walking her followers through her personal collection of Mr. Madden's shoes. 'It felt really genuine — he wasn't snooty,' said Victoria Thompson, 31, a government worker and content creator in Augusta, Ga. 'I felt like that could have been my uncle. And he called us his girls. I'm like, you know what? Let me go support him.' After seeing the clips on TikTok over the weekend, she drove to the nearest Dillard's department store and bought a pair of Steve Madden slippers. They look like a type produced by Hermès, but are far less expensive.
