These Are Boom Times For White Collar Criminals

The federal prosecution of white collar crime dropped by 30.5% during the Democratic administration of Joe Biden, which pursued prosecution of Jan. 6 defendants and then-former Pres. Donald J. Trump.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

It is not often that a public fundraising campaign is launched to benefit an alleged murderer.

But such a campaign is underway for Luigi Mangione, 26, who is facing a charge of first degree murder for allegedly ambushing and killing Brian Thompson, 50, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, on Dec. 4 as Thompson walked to a shareholder’s conference in Manhattan.

On Monday, $756,843 had been donated to the GiveSendGo fund for Mangione, indicating it will achieve its stated goal of $1 million.

Why are people donating to Mangione, 26, an Ivy League college grad from a well-to-do Baltimore family?

A review of comments on the donation website indicate that many donors are angry that corporations are not being held accountable for financially exploiting Americans. “It takes real courage to stand up against corporate greed,” wrote one donor, who contributed $6,286.00 to the Mangione’s fund.

In fact, the number of criminal prosecutions for white collar crime by the federal government has plummeted in recent decades, leaving Americans vulnerable to abuse.

Americans are right to wonder why there are so few criminal prosecutions for white collar crimes, which can devastate businesses, investors, and individuals. White collar crime includes such things as insurance and tax fraud, securities fraud, antitrust violations, aggravated identity theft, financial institution fraud, etc.

The following chart from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research firm, shows white collar criminal prosecutions have drastically declined in recent decades.