Seattle99: Corporate Crime

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dawn Star wrote:
> 
> check it out (Unocal & Corp. Crime Companies...) :
> "The purpose of the memo was to help federal prosecutors decide when to
>  prosecute -- and not prosecute -- corporations...."
> 
> Robert Weissman wrote:
> >
> > Support Your Local Corporate Crime Police
> > By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
> >
> > Earlier this year, the Justice Department put out a fifteen-page memo
> > titled "Federal Prosecutions of Corporations."
> >
> > The purpose of the memo was to help federal prosecutors decide when to
> > prosecute -- and not prosecute -- corporations.
> >
> > It's a great little memo. Written by Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder,
> > the memo makes the point right up front that "vigorous enforcement of the
> > criminal laws against corporate wrongdoers, where appropriate, results in
> > great benefits for law enforcement and the public, particularly in the
> > area of white collar crime."
> >
> > According to the memo, "prosecutors should be aware of the important
> > public benefits that may flow from indicting a corporation in appropriate
> > cases."
> >
> > When indicted for criminal conduct that is pervasive throughout the
> > industry, corporations are likely to take remedial action. Thus, "an
> > indictment often provides a unique opportunity for deterrence on a massive
> > scale." In addition, an indictment may result in specific deterrence by
> > the culture of the indicted corporation and its employees.
> >
> > In corporate crime cases that carry with them a substantial risk of great
> > public harm -- like environmental crime cases -- there is a "substantial
> > federal interest in indicting the corporation."
> >
> > That's what we thought. The memo is well written, and a good guide for
> > prosecutors. The Justice Department should have put out a press release
> > announcing the memo to the world, instead of sitting on it until someone
> > on the inside leaked it out to us.
> >
> > Perhaps one reason Janet Reno's people didn't want it to go public is that
> > the Justice Department isn't walking the talk -- especially in the
> > environmental crimes arena.
> >
> > Prosecution of environmental crimes has sharply fallen during the Clinton
> > Administration, according to a compilation of court records released last
> > week by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
> >
> > Comparing statistics from a three-year period in the Bush Administration
> > (1989-91) with a similar period in the Clinton Administration (1996-98),
> > the PEER review shows dramatic declines in criminal referrals,
> > prosecutions and convictions:
> >
> > * more than a one-quarter (27 percent) decrease in prosecutions;
> >
> > * a greater than one-third (38 percent) drop in convictions; and
> >
> > * a nearly 10 percent decline in the conviction rate.
> >
> > Even though the Justice Department is pursuing fewer cases, it is also
> > declining more cases (26 percent more) brought by referring agencies, such
> > as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the Fish & Wildlife
> > Service.
> >
> > "The criminal environmental enforcement record of the previous incumbent
> > was clearly better by virtually every measure of prosecutorial effort,"
> > commented PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, a former state prosecutor.
> > "Maybe George Bush really was the Environmental President."
> >
> > The statistics also reinforce the results of PEER employee surveys and
> > interviews with federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers about the
> > de-emphasis of environmental enforcement within their agencies.
> >
> > For example, PEER is defending Gregory Sasse, an Assistant United States
> > Attorney in Cleveland, who says he has suffered retaliation for pursuing
> > pollution prosecutions under the Clinton Administration.
> >
> > Sasse is probably one of the more aggressive prosecutors of environmental
> > crimes in the country. And because of it, it appears, he has been isolated
> > and discriminated against.
> >
> > In a complaint filed in 1996, Sasse says that his superiors within the
> > Department punished him for prosecuting polluters.
> >
> > In one case, reported on recently by the Boston Globe's David Armstrong,
> > Sasse was briefing a supervisor about a steel company that was illegally
> > releasing toxic pollutants into the air and sickening nearby residents.
> >
> > According to Sasse, the supervisor asked him -- "If the neighbors don't
> > like it, why don't they move?"
> >
> > When Sasse insisted that the pollution was making the neighbors sick,
> > Sasse says the supervisor told him, "people get sick all the time."
> >
> > "I was sick last month and nobody opened a criminal investigation," Sasse
> > reports the supervisor saying.
> >
> > Sometimes, line prosecutors rebel against their superiors. That has been
> > the case in New England recently, where for four years, line prosecutors
> > have been complaining about EPA New England enforcement chief John
> > DeVillars.
> >
> > In a May 13, 1998 letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner, PEER alleged
> > that DeVillars "has engaged in a pattern of activity which has undermined
> > environmental enforcement, given a distinct impression of favoritism
> > within certain segments of the regulated community, and constrained
> > regional enforcement staff from properly carrying out their duties."
> >
> > Earlier this month, under pressure from PEER, DeVillars abruptly resigned
> > his position, saying that he was leaving the EPA to teach at the
> > Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to pursue an unspecified
> > "business venture."
> >
> > Unfortunately, in our society, dominated as it is by the corporate
> > criminal elite, line prosecutors like Sasse are left fighting for their
> > professional lives, while political operatives like DeVillars get plum
> > jobs at top flight universities.
> >
> > Not exactly what Eric Holder recommended in his memo.
> >
> > Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
> > Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
> > Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
> > Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
> > Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org)
> >
> > (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
> >
> > ----------------------------------------
> >
> > Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
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