October, 30 2023, 11:58am EDT
Corporate Prosecutions Remain Near Record Lows in Biden’s Justice Department
Despite promises to ramp up enforcement, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted only 99 corporate offenders in 2022, a small uptick from the previous year’s 90 prosecutions, according to a new report from Public Citizen. President Joe Biden’s second year is thus tied with former President Donald Trump’s second year for having the fourth lowest number of corporate prosecutions since the start of the Clinton administration.
“The Biden Justice Department’s light-touch approach to enforcement encourages corporate scofflaws to push the limits of what’s legally allowed to maximize their profits – risking our health and safety, our environment, our finances, and our communities,” said Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen and author of the report.
“The Justice Department is still bending over backwards to protect corporate offenders from the consequences of their lawbreaking, and it’s creating ideal conditions for the next corporate catastrophe,” Claypool added. “The worst corporate-caused crises of the 21st century – the 2008 financial crisis and the opioid epidemic – are stories about enforcement agencies failing to fight systemic criminal misconduct before it was too late.”
The number of federal corporate prosecutions has been steadily declining since 2000, when the Justice Department prosecuted triple the number of corporations that it does today (304). The near-record low number of corporate prosecutions combined with plunging corporate leniency agreements means the federal government concluded just 110 criminal cases against corporations in 2022 – fewer than any previous year since 1994.
Biden’s Justice Department pledged in 2022 to end the era of corporate impunity. In 2021, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco urged prosecutors to “be bold” in holding corporate criminals accountable. And Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a speech in 2022, declaring, “I have […] seen the Justice Department’s interest in prosecuting corporate crime wax and wane over time. Today, it is waxing again.” But the modest enforcement policies the administration later announced were far from bold. In practice, the policies seem more likely to accelerate the crisis of corporate impunity instead of addressing it, Public Citizen argues.
The worst part of the new policy is the Justice Department’s renewed and expanded promise to reward corporate criminals that self-report misconduct with declinations. A declination is a formal guarantee that the government will not bring a criminal case. Despite a web page dedicated to posting declinations, they are not consistently disclosed. Corporate defense attorneys openly state their goal for clients subject to criminal investigations is to win a “non-public declination” – and may list the achievement on profiles they post to promote their services.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
COP28 Advisor Quits Over Alleged UAE Oil and Gas Deal-Making
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole," former Marshallese President Hilda Heine wrote in her resignation letter to COP28 chief Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.
Dec 01, 2023
United Nations Climate Change Conference advisory board member Hilda Heine resigned on Friday, citing reports that the Emirati oil executive presiding over COP28 has been busy pushing for fossil fuel deals in the run-up to the event.
Earlier this week, the Center for Climate Reporting and the BBCreported that Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—who is simultaneously serving as COP28 president and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)—"has held scores of meetings with senior government officials, royalty, and business leaders from around the world in recent months" as the "COP28 team has quietly planned to use this access as an opportunity to increase exports of ADNOC's oil and gas."
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole."
In her resignation letter, which was seen and first reported by Reuters, Heine—who is a former president of the low-lying Marshall Islands, one of the world's most climate-imperiled nations—called the United Arab Emirates' plan to make oil and gas deals at COP28 "deeply disappointing."
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole," she asserted, adding that the only way Al Jaber can restore confidence is to "deliver an outcome that demonstrates that you are committed to phasing out fossil fuels."
Al Jaber has denied that he's using COP28 for fossil fuel deal-making.
"These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, and not accurate," he said Wednesday at a Dubai press conference. "And it's an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency."
A spokesperson for COP28's presidency said they are "extremely disappointed by Dr. Heine's resignation."
"We appreciated her advice throughout the year and that we only wish she would have been with us here in the UAE celebrating the adoption of a fund that will support vulnerable island states and those most affected by climate impacts," the spokesperson said, referring to the global "loss and damage" fund that one critic
slammed as "a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of the need they are to address."
The UAE isn't the only major oil producer pushing fossil fuels while participating in COP28. Saudi Arabia—whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday was among the world leaders kicking off talks at the conference—"is overseeing a sweeping global investment program" intended to "ensure that emerging economies across Africa and Asia become vastly more dependent on oil," the Center for Climate Reporting and Channel 4 Newsrevealed this week.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Disastrous': Michigan Regulators Approve Enbridge Line 5 Expansion
"Today's decision is another notch in a long history of ignoring the rights of tribal nations," said one Indigenous leader.
Dec 01, 2023
Days after climate advocates applauded Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signing of a package of clean energy bills that one campaigner said would "translate into better air, water, and health for everyone," state regulators took several steps back from a sustainable future as they approved a key permit for Enbridge's Line 5 expansion project beneath the Great Lakes.
In a 2-0 vote with one member abstaining, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved siting for the project, granting Canadian oil firm Enbridge permission to build a concrete tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac—which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron—to house a four-mile section of its 645-mile petroleum pipeline.
The company can't break ground on the project without approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which isn't expected to announce its decision until 2026, but Indigenous tribes and advocacy groups that have fought for years to stop the pipeline from being built expressed outrage that the commission approved the permit despite well-documented objections.
All federally recognized tribes in Michigan have passed resolutions opposing Line 5, which safety experts have warned puts the Great Lakes at risk for a massive explosion and oil spill.
"Today's decision is another notch in a long history of ignoring the rights of tribal nations," said Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community. "We must act now to protect the peoples of the Great Lakes from an oil spill, to lead our communities out of the fossil fuel era, and to preserve the shared lands and waters in Michigan for all of us."
Tribes have said the project would violate their treaty rights and that Enbridge has not proven it can operate the tunnel safely. The company's Line 6B oil spill in 2010 contaminated nearly 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River.
"Disappointment isn't a big enough word," Rebecca Liebing, attorney for Bay Mills, told Michigan Bridge after the MPSC vote was announced. "There's no ambiguity regarding how the tribes feel about this matter... We're not done fighting."
The lakes hold 84% of North America's surface freshwater, and the Line 5 expansion would be the largest underwater hazardous liquids tunnel ever completed, said the coalition Oil and Water Don't Mix (OWDM).
"With this action, the Michigan Public Service Commission is putting Michigan in uncharted, dangerous territory while ignoring warnings by independent industry experts who testified during the MPSC's proceedings," said Sean McBrearty, a campaign coordinator for OWDM. "Never before has an oil tunnel that also carries other hazardous liquids been built in one of the most ecologically sensitive spots on Earth."
McBrearty pointed out that Enbridge already operates other oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac, and said there is "an open question whether Enbridge intends to build the tunnel or is simply using the project as a diversion and delay from shutting down the existing twin oil pipelines."
"Moreover, the Line 5 tunnel will worsen the impacts of the climate crisis by adding 27 million metric tons of polluting and climate altering carbon into the atmosphere, equivalent to 10 coal-fired power plants," said McBrearty, calling on President Joe Biden to revoke the presidential permit for Line 5.
Whitmer campaigned on closing down Line 5, but Enbridge has claimed the governor has no authority to shut down its pipelines because it runs between the U.S. and Canada and is subject to federal regulations.
A spokesperson for the governor toldMichigan Bridge that Whitmer is reviewing the MPSC's decision and that her goal "has always been getting the pipelines out of the water as quickly as possible."
Christopher Clark, senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represented Bay Mills as it presented its case objecting to Line 5 to the MPSC, said the commission ignored "the concerns of tribal communities in favor of the profit of a fossil fuel company."
"The evidence before the commission demonstrated that the proposed tunnel would put the Great Lakes region at serious risk and profoundly endanger the identity and lifeways of the Bay Mills Indian Community, a sovereign tribal nation whose relationship to these waters preexists the United States," said Clark. "We will use every open avenue to shut down Line 5 in order to avert an environmental catastrophe and slow the unthinkable impacts of climate change.”Keep ReadingShow Less
After House Ousts Santos, Fetterman Says Menendez Also 'Needs to Go'
"If you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow... somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate?"
Dec 01, 2023
After the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to expel Republican New York Congressman George Santos, Sen. John Fetterman renewed his demand for similar action against Sen. Bob Menendez.
Fetterman (D-Pa.) has been calling for Menendez (D-N.J.) to exit the Senate since he was indicted in September and accused aiding the government of Egypt, engaging in "a corrupt relationship" with multiple businessmen, and accepting bribes in the form of "cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value."
Menendez has temporarily stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but refused to voluntarily leave the chamber, even after he was hit with another federal charge in October for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent for Egpyt.
Appearing on "The View" Friday, Fetterman argued that Menendez's alleged actions are "much more sinister and serious" than those of Santos—who faces 23 charges including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
"He needs to go. And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow... somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate?" said Fetterman, who previously returned $5,000 that his colleague gave to his 2022 campaign. "Menendez, I think, is really a senator for Egypt, not New Jersey."
Asked about the fact that Menendez has not been convicted of any crimes, Fetterman responded that "he has the right for his day in court... but he doesn't have the right to have those kind of votes [in the Senate]. That's not a right and I think we need to make that kind of decision to send him out."
Congressman Rob Menendez (D-N.J.)—the embattled senator's son, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing—was among the 105 Republicans and 206 Democrats who voted Friday to expel Santos. It was a reversal from his position last month, before the House Ethics Committee released its report on the New Yorker's alleged misconduct and criminal activity.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular