With the same megabanks that have been prosecuted in recent years now being investigated for new crimes, doubts have been raised about the ability of prosecutors to clean up the largest corporate criminals. Cycles of recidivism will continue if prosecutors do not hold the most serious corporate offenders more accountable.

Much of the compliance that prosecutions demand in agreements with companies looks fairly toothless: Most corporate prosecution agreements last just two to three years and few require companies to carefully audit compliance. Only one-quarter of these deals require that an independent monitor supervise compliance, and judges have been involved — at their own insistence — in only a handful of cases.

 
Citation
Brandon L. Garrett, Prosecutors Must Hold Corporate Offenders Accountable, New York Times (August 27, 2014).
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