Interesting new TRAC data on federal white-collar prosecutions

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) recently released this notable new report titled “Federal Prosecution of White-Collar Crimes Receiving Less and Less Attention.”  The report captures all sort of data about federal white-collar prosecutions, and is worth a read in full.  Here are some snippets:

The latest government case-by-case records reveal that as of March 31, 2025, federal efforts to prosecute white-collar crimes have continued to decline – down more than 10 percent from FY 2024 in the last full year of the Biden administration….

This report is based on case-by-case records from the DOJ ordered released each month to TRAC after successful lengthy litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. Previous TRAC reports based on these data have covered the long-term decrease in white-collar prosecutions, even as court enforcement for immigration and drug offenses had increased,…

U.S. Attorney offices filed 4,332 prosecutions for white-collar crimes in FY 2024, less than half of the 10,269 prosecutions filed in FY 1994 three decades earlier. And FY 2025 is projected to fall even further to just 3,862….

In general, all prosecution rates except for immigration dropped substantially in the first half of FY 2025. In addition, compared with other program categories, prosecutors file prosecutions on criminal referrals at lower rates for white-collar offenses than almost all other program categories. Depending on the year, officials have filed prosecutions on between 30 and 50 percent of all cases referred to their office since FY 1986 until FY 2025 when it fell to just 24 percent.