Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
ODAG
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

Fact Sheet: President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force Marks Five Years of Ensuring Corporate Integrity

WASHINGTON – President Bush created the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force on July 9, 2002 to restore public and investor confidence in America’s corporations following a wave of major corporate scandals. Since its inception, the Task Force has compiled a strong record of combating corporate fraud and punishing those who violate the trust of employees and investors. Today, the member agencies of the Task Force recognized these successes at an event commemorating its fifth anniversary.

Chaired by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, the Task Force includes senior Department of Justice officials, seven U.S. Attorneys, the heads of the Departments of Treasury and Labor, and the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Communications Commission, United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. In the last five years, the task force has yielded remarkable results with 1,236 total corporate fraud convictions to date, including:

Additionally, the Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section has obtained more than one billion dollars in fraud-related forfeitures and has distributed that money to the victims of corporate fraud.

Prosecuting Corporate Criminals

Prosecutors and agency attorneys who are part of the Task Force have brought charges for accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, false statements, money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, stock option backdating and conspiracy, among others.

The following cases highlight just a sample of the exhaustive prosecutorial efforts of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal and Tax Divisions of the Department of Justice and investigators of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation:

Cooperating and Sharing Information across Agencies

The success of the Task Force goes beyond the number of convictions and forfeiture. Over the past five years, the Task Force has increased cooperation among federal agencies and leveraged the resources of the federal government to combat corporate fraud. These cooperative efforts include:

Using Valuable Legislative Tools

The Task Force has utilized the tools provided by Congress to combat corporate fraud as embodied in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. For example, the Task Force has charged more than 50 defendants with the new securities fraud provision set forth in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1348. In addition, the Task Force has charged defendants with falsely certifying the financial statements under Section 1350. The Task Force believes that this Section in particular has had an enormous deterrent effect on corporate crime.

Staying on the Offensive

Though its past successes are significant, the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force remains committed to preserving the integrity of our corporations and our financial markets in the future. As new forms of corporate fraud and corruption emerge, the Task Force will continue to aggressively prosecute perpetrators and seek justice for the victims of these crimes and for American investors.

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