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Corp. Crime Crackdown: Many Serve Minimal Sentences

By Martha Neil

December 13, 2007, 7:00 pm CST

Despite a renewed emphasis on corporate compliance in recent years and a high-profile crackdown on executives who don’t play by the rules, such prosecutions may be sending a mixed message to those tempted by white-collar crime.

That’s because nearly half of the defendants convicted in such cases during the past five years served sentences of one year or less, reports Bloomberg. Sixty-one percent spent two years or less in jail. At the opposite ends of the scale, more than 25 percent served no time at all, and only six percent got 10 years or more.

“Sentencing white-collar defendants to two years or less does not send a strong deterrent message,” says Joshua Hochberg, who headed the Justice Department’s criminal fraud section between 1998 and 2005. “On the other hand, convicting a lot of defendants sends the message that you will be caught, and there are consequences.”

However, Joan Meyer, a Justice Department lawyer who oversees the Corporate Fraud Task Force created by President George W. Bush to pursue significant corruption cases, says the prospect of serving any prison sentence can have a deterrent effect on would-be criminals.

“Every case can’t be an Enron,” she says. “The question is, do we give a pass to white-collar defendants because their crimes are non-violent and result in lesser sentences? That would be an abdication of our responsibilities.”