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American democracy is in jeopardy, from the disastrous Citizens United ruling that flooded our politics with corporate cash to the immoral assault on voting rights. We work every day to defend against these threats and advance bold reforms.

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The U.S. government should work for the public, not corporations or industry. It should safeguard consumers, workers and the environment, and be funded well enough to do so. The budget process must not be obstructed by partisanship.

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Every day, Big Banks, Big Polluters, and Big Tech companies are threatening our economy, our environment, and our democracy – sacrificing Main Street Americans and our families on the altar of corporate profits. Public Citizen advocates for ordinary people by taking on corporate interests and their cronies in government.

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Globalization & Trade [6]

Global Trade Watch’s mission is to ensure that in this era of globalization, a majority have the opportunity to enjoy economic security, a healthy environment, safe food, medicines and products, access to quality affordable services such as health care and the exercise of democratic decision-making about the matters that affect our lives.

Global Trade Watch has led the fight against corporate-rigged “trade” agreements that provide special powers for Big Pharma to raise medicine prices, promote the outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries and undermine the food safety and other safeguards on which our families rely.

For decades, we have fought for progressive alternatives that benefit people and the planet. Learn more about our work.

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Climate & Energy [7]

The climate crisis is the challenge of our time. We can fix it with solutions that will make us healthier and more economically secure. We must act quickly to make our economy run on renewable power — and ensure that disadvantaged families and displaced workers share equitably in the new economy. We also must fight the corrupting power of fossil fuel companies and ensure that energy regulators are effective and publicly accountable.

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Justice & the Courts [8]

Litigation can remedy or deter wrongdoing, impact policy and meaningfully slow abuses of power. Whether suing on behalf of our members to ensure the honest functioning of government, or representing individual consumers seeking redress in court, our litigation draws on our expertise in administrative law, constitutional law, and government transparency.

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April 25, 2022

Report: Corporate Prosecutions Reach Record Low Under Biden

Public Citizen Urges More Corporate Prosecutions to Match DOJ’s Changes in Enforcement Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Corporate prosecutions under President Joe Biden remain in the abyss after reaching record lows under President Donald Trump, according to new government data analyzed in a Public Citizen report released today. Only 90 corporations either pled guilty or were found guilty of federal crimes in 2021, despite ostensible policy shifts by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) toward tougher enforcement.

Federal prosecutions of corporate criminals plunged into double digits for the first time in 25 years under President Trump, down to record lows of 99 in 2018 and 94 in 2020. Corporate prosecutions have now fallen by two-thirds from the peak of 296 in 2000. The report outlines several recent DOJ policy shifts that should lead to higher levels of enforcement.

“The Biden DOJ’s policy changes away from Trump’s soft-on-corporate-crime approach suggest enforcement against corporate lawbreakers should be ramping up, but the numbers for 2021 don’t reflect those changes,” said Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen and author of the report. “Deterring corporate monopolists, polluters, fraudsters, and workplace abusers requires the DOJ to bring tough prosecutions. It’s the only way to show Big Business that the cost of crime outweighs any perceived benefit of profit-driven lawbreaking. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland must prioritize prosecuting these cases, and President Biden and Congress need to provide the DOJ with the resources to do the job.”

The report also reveals the simultaneous trends of declining corporate prosecutions and increasing corporate leniency agreements: deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements. Leniency agreements made up a quarter (26%) of all resolutions of federal cases against corporations accused of crimes in 2021. This is down from Trump’s final year, when nearly a third (32%) of corporate crime cases were resolved in this way.

The report covers fiscal year 2021 and is based on an analysis of federal corporate prosecution data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Corporate Prosecution Registry – a joint project of Duke University and the University of Virginia that tracks criminal enforcement actions against corporations.