I’ve heard it before… that since 9/11 all the federal law enforcement officers are working on “Homeland Security” and don’t have time to look at white collar crime. I don’t profess to know the inner workings of all these agencies, but how much “Homeland Security” work can there possibly be, and at some point is there not a diminishing return? Doesn’t domestic white collar crime and fraud still deserve some attention????

Douglas McNabb at Federal Crimes Blog brought up this topic today and had the following to say:

If it seems like sophisticated fraud and other white-collar crime is on the rise that may be because it is. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks Bush administration has refocused the FBI on fighting terror and this has left far fewer agents to target the cases the bureau has traditionally pursued. It adds up to thousand of white-collar criminals nationwide who are no longer prosecuted in federal court, frustrated victims and potentially billions of dollars in fraud and theft losses.

More than five years after the 2001 attacks, the Justice Department has failed to replace at least 2,400 agents detailed to focus on counterterrorism. “Politically, this trade-off has been accepted – but do the American people know this trade-off has been made?” said Charles Mandigo, a former FBI congressional liaison.

While the U.S. Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget steadfastly deny that traditional criminal enforcement by the FBI hasn’t suffered.

Douglas goes on to mention an investigation done by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which analyzed more than 250,000 cases looked at by the FBI and federal prosecutors prior to 9/11. The investigation found that:

• The number of criminal cases investigated by the FBI has steadily declined. 31,000 cases were brought to federal prosecutors in 2000, compared with 20,000 cases in 2005.
• The number of white collar crime investigations has dropped from 10,000 cases assigned to FBI agents in 2000, to only 3,500 cases in 2005.
• Post-Intelligencer analysis of cases showed that 2,000 more white collar criminals would be behind bars if investigations had continued at the same rate as before 9/11.