U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland made two announcements this week related to the enforcement of white-collar crime by both individuals and corporations. First, on March 2, 2022, Attorney General Garland announced the launch of Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures imposed against Russia in response to its military invasion of Ukraine. Second, on March 4, 2022, the Attorney General discussed additional resources that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) would devote to the prosecution of white-collar crime.
The mission of Task Force KleptoCapture includes investigating and prosecuting violations of sanctions against Russia; combating unlawful efforts to undermine the restrictions in place against Russian financial institutions (including the prosecution of those who try to evade know-your-customer and anti-money laundering measures); targeting efforts to use cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions, launder proceeds of foreign corruption, or evade U.S. responses to Russian military aggression; and using civil and criminal asset forfeiture laws to seize assets obtained through unlawful conduct. The task force will be overseen by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and will include prosecutors, agents, professional staff, and analysts from across the DOJ with an expertise in sanctions, export control enforcement, anticorruption, asset forfeiture, anti-money laundering, tax enforcement, national security investigations, and foreign evidence collection. Andrew Adams, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, will lead the new task force which will complement the efforts of a similar transatlantic task force announced by President Biden and European leaders.
In his March 4, 2022 remarks at the American Bar Association’s National Institute on White Collar Crime, Attorney General Garland also noted that the DOJ will devote increased resources to prosecuting individuals for white collar crimes and strengthening its corporate enforcement efforts. The additional resources will primarily be focused on hiring additional prosecutors, as well as FBI agents to support the FBI’s white collar crime program. DOJ will reportedly hire an additional 120 prosecutors to focus on white collar initiatives, in addition to the 34 attorneys that the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section hired in 2021. Attorney General Garland emphasized that these efforts were in line with the DOJ’s recent shift towards tougher corporate enforcement policies and increased focus on white collar crime that was first announced in October 2021 at the American Bar Association’s National Institute on White Collar Crime by Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco.
See DOJ Announces Major Policy Changes To How It Investigates And Prosecutes Corporate Crime, Signaling A Return To Tougher Enforcement And Individual Accountability (November 3, 2021).
