Thread by @doctorow

Seen in one light, America has an epidemic of corporate crime. Companies like United, Boeing, Wells Fargo and Walmart attract *hundreds* of government enforcement actions.

But these companies almost never end up facing criminal charges - instead, they get "leniency agreements," which they violate, again and again (United's done this *533 times*).

prospect.org/power/corporat…

Functionally, the USA doesn't have a corporate criminal law system at all, even though corporations commit 20x more crimes than natural persons, and their crimes attain a scale and severity no human criminal could ever hope to match:

pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-…

These aren't just accounting fraud and wage theft, either - think homicide, arson, drug trafficking, dumping and sexual offenses. And that's just what we know about - only 5% of corporate crimes ever come to light.

Writing for the Corporate Crime Reporter, @CorpCrimeReport offers a list of euphemisms that the press, the corporate bar, and law schools use to magic corporate crime out of existence:

corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/call-…

The @WSJ calls it "Risk & Compliance." The @nytimes calls it "white collar crime" - a favorite euphemism also used by the @ABAesq.

As a euphemism, #WhiteCollarCrime has a huge advantage, in that it equates a bank teller who steals from a bank with a bank - like Wells Fargo - that steals from millions of its customers.

#BigLaw uses the "white collar" euphemism (@gibsondunn), but also "Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations" (@Kirkland_Ellis). @SkaddenArps casts a wide net with "Government Enforcement and White Collar Crime."

The DoJ bends over backwards not to call corporate crime "crime." When a firm like Purdue Pharma or Boeing settles a claim, the cops on the corporate beat put out press releases celebrating their "agreement to pay" a fine. Mokhiber: "Look how agreeable they are."

Settlements like Boeing's - for the death of 346 people - don't include a corporate guilty plea. There are no charges laid against execs. No manslaughter charges are laid. And yet the DoJ says they're "holding Boeing accountable."

Maybe that's finally changing?

pluralistic.net/2021/11/12/wit…

Biden Deputy AG Lisa Monaco gave a speech announcing a drawdown in these leniency agreements and a new era of criminal charges for criminal acts, including criminal indictments of individual executives:

justice.gov/opa/speech/dep…

But she's in for an uphill battle. The DoJ is stuffed full of ambitious lawyers who dream of careers at Big Law firms, like Erin Nealy Cox who negotiated Boeing's leniency on behalf of the DoJ.

Boeing was represented by Kirkland and Ellis and now, Cox is a partner at...Kirkland and Ellis.

And the DoJ is still tying itself in knots over their unwillingness to call crime "crime."

Deputy AG Monaco is scheduled for an interview with the WSJ over her landmark speech - and the DoJ's press release calls this a discussion of "the intersection between business and government."

You can't make this stuff up.

Image:
Sam Valadi (modified)
flickr.com/photos/1320845…

CC BY 2.0:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.…

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/sol…