FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Max Moran, moran@therevolvingdoorproject.org
The Biden administration pursued at least 24 prosecutions and rulemakings to crack down on white-collar crime this winter, but took no action against at least 48 crimes or abuses, a new data set from the Revolving Door Project shows.
The data set is the first in a new series the Revolving Door Project will release in coming months tracking the administration’s pursuit of corporate crime, and its equally-important efforts to publicize doing so. Every two weeks, the Project will release round-ups of white-collar crimes pursued and ignored. Every few months, the Project plans to compile these round-ups into fuller retrospectives on the Biden administration’s pursuit of corporate crime.
“The Biden administration agrees we are living through a golden age of white-collar crime, and that someone has to do something about it,” said RDP Executive Director Jeff Hauser. “That’s good policy, and good politics. Unfortunately, their actions so far haven’t matched up with their rhetoric. And the rhetoric hasn’t even been widely or consistently deployed by the administration. Biden’s team has to both do more and let the public know that they’re doing more by welcoming open conflict with the worst rogue corporations.”
This winter’s data set is compiled from news coverage and agency press releases regarding the administration’s crackdowns on corporate crime, as well as media exposés and academic research showing white-collar crimes which haven’t been pursued. The data reflects corporate sectors which the Project already follows, and lawbreaking which the Project believes have potential to mobilize populist support for a President cracking down on abuses.
In an accompanying article, RDP Personnel Team Director Max Moran writes that the lackluster 2:1 ratio of crimes pursued to crimes ignored is partly thanks to Congressional intransigence. In part due to Republican walkouts of committee hearings on advancing nominees, several key agencies still lack leadership of their white-collar crime investigative divisions. “There’s no reason, though, that Schumer has to grant McConnell and his ilk the power to hold these blockades,” Moran writes. “Essentially, Schumer can say that deliberately avoiding hearings is an elaborate and showy way of a member voting “abstain” — which is what it is, after all.”
The Project encourages journalists, academics, and members of the public to reach out with news about white-collar crimes, Biden administration actions, and more. Biweekly news round-ups will be emailed to interested parties, posted on the Revolving Door Project’s website, and sent out through our Substack newsletter.
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PHOTO CREDIT: “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0