This Committee focuses on aspects of White Collar criminal law that impact businesses and executives, such as legislative and rulemaking initiatives relating to corporate accountability; the Federal Sentencing Guidelines; and the trend by the federal government to use various federal criminal laws (such as Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Securities Fraud) to effectively control and regulate business conduct. The Committee is also interested in the growth of parallel federal and state administrative investigations and civil proceedings in such matters, and the impact on businesses and their operations. In recent years, Congress has enacted far reaching laws intended to reform business conduct and corporate governance, including provisions within the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act; tax crimes and currency reporting violations, securities laws (including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act); workplace injury crimes; and environmental crimes, among others. In addition, federal agencies have been empowered to administration ever-increasing and far reaching sanctions, such as suspensions, exclusions, and debarments. At bottom, the Committee is focused about issues involving the government's efforts to regulate the conduct of businesses by criminal investigation and prosecution, instead of the administrative process, and its encroachment into areas historically governed by the states.
