Predicting White Collar Enforcement Priorities in the Biden Administration
As all signs point to Joe Biden becoming the 46th President of the United States, AGG’s Government Investigations Team has begun considering the likely shifts in white collar enforcement from the Trump Administration to a Biden Administration. Every administration brings its own priorities to enforcement, with the Trump Administration focusing more on immigration and corporate espionage cases, while conventional wisdom holds that Democratic administrations emphasize white collar enforcement and a more active regulatory environment. Indeed, continuing a ten-year trend, white collar prosecutions declined significantly from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration. As of mid-2020, the number of white collar prosecutions was down 25% from 2015, while civil enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly insider trading cases, also declined.
We anticipate that a Biden Administration will actively renew and initiate criminal and enforcement investigations in a number of areas where the Trump Administration was not as active.
