WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Hold Corporate Criminals Accountable Act, bipartisan legislation to increase public transparency and accountability by allowing courts to consider the public interest in approving corporate criminal settlement agreements that don’t involve a conviction. The bipartisan bill will also provide more prosecutorial tools to combat corporate criminal actors by extending statutes of limitations and requiring more cooperation by wrongdoers in order to receive a reduction in punishment. 

In recent years, the country has seen a rise in deferred and non-prosecution agreements—which allow corporations to resolve criminal liability without a conviction in exchange for fines or other smaller punishments. Yet, the FBI estimates the annual cost of corporate crime —$300 billion—is 20 times greater than the cost of street crime. At least 40 Fortune 500 companies have received a deferred and non-prosecution agreement, including recently Citigroup, Boeing, and Monsanto. 

“All wrongdoers should be held accountable for their actions—plain and simple. Yet federal prosecution of white-collar crimes has fallen to record lows in recent years, making it easier for ultra-wealthy executives to game the system and avoid responsibility when they hurt hardworking people. It’s also making it harder for the victims of corporate crimes to get justice, and that’s unacceptable,” said Senator Welch. “Our bipartisan bill will ensure a level playing field and provide needed accountability.” 
 

“More and more big businesses are receiving a slap on the wrist by the DOJ for corporate misbehavior, allowing corporations to skirt litigation fees while incentivizing repeated offenses. This bipartisan legislation has the teeth to hold Corporate America accountable and would crack down on DOJ’s sweetheart deals,” said Senator Hawley. 

In order to ensure public accountability for corporate wrongdoing in our judicial system, the Hold Corporate Criminals Accountable Act would: 

1. Require more judicial scrutiny of deferred or non-prosecution agreements to ensure these agreements are in the public’s interest. 
2. Require corporations placed in one of these agreements or on probation to use effective compliance monitoring instead of skirting monitoring, as in the case of Boeing’s recent agreement. 
3. Require federal agencies keep a public list and copy of these deferred and non-prosecution agreements they enter so the public can see the contents of them. 
4. Extend all statutes of limitations related to corporate criminal offenses by five years to provide prosecutors more time to bring complex cases. 
5. Redefine substantial assistance for a sentencing reduction in the context of corporate criminal offenders to require actual assistance in identifying and prosecuting individual bad actors within a corporation. 

The Hold Corporate Criminals Accountable Act is endorsed by Professor Brad Garrett, author of Too Big to Jail. 

Learn more about the Hold Corporate Criminals Accountable Act. 

Read the full text of the bill. 

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