Why hasn't anyone on Wall Street gone to prison for the 2008 financial crisis? Perhaps because the FBI is recommending far fewer white-collar prosecutions, says the Los Angeles Times. The FBI has recommended only 2,001 white-collar cases for criminal prosecution so far in the fiscal year ending Monday, on pace for a nearly 7 percent drop from last year, says the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), affiliated with Syracuse University.
It would be one of the lowest years on record and would extend a years-long trend. Typically, the FBI investigates potential wrongdoing and recommends cases to Justice Department prosecutors. Despite concerns about widespread wrongdoing on Wall Street, the number of white-collar prosecutions recommended by the FBI has plummeted more than 45 percent in the last decade, says the clearinghouse. It's not for a lack of resources. The number of criminal investigators rose to 13,812 this year from 11,097 in 2001.