Monday, August 20, 2018

The Trump administration is emphasizing a less-punitive approach to combat white-collar crime and civil violations by expanding rewards to companies that report violations and take steps to fix them. But critics warn that it fosters bad behavior.


 2 hours ago
At the EPA, there's been a big drop in civil and criminal cases against polluters.  
It’s expanding a program for new owners of oil and gas facilities to self-report violations of the Clean Air Act in exchange for a reduction in government penalties. (2/6)

A new pilot program from the Labor Department lets businesses that run afoul of federal wage laws receive fewer penalties.  It faces sharp criticism from Democratic officials and worker advocates who say it lets off law-breaking employers too easily. (3/6)

During the campaign, Trump himself cast Wall Street institutions like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup as villains.  In office, however, the president has scaled back the government's efforts to police financial institutions, analysis shows (4/6)

Federal officials say the approach will encourage more companies to disclose violations and help them target bad actors.  "The purpose of the policy is to more effectively prosecute corporate crime, not less," Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein said. (5/6)

Many consumer advocacy groups don’t agree.  "Saying, 'We're going to pat you on the back, try better next time,' is not going to deter the kind of wrongdoing at the scale that companies are doing," Public Citizen's Rick Claypool said. (6/6)