The Real Fraud

Here in Minnesota, we're constantly inundated with talk of fraud, fraud, fraud. That's Minnesota Republicans' favorite word, since they think they can beat Democrats over the head with it, including in our current race for the U.S. Senate and governor's office. They encourage national right-wing video propagandists to come here to chase random Somali people, assuming anyone who watches their material will believe that people who look East African must be committing fraud. 

A column by former U.S. attorney and now University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade called The "war on fraud" is targeting the wrong crimes (gift link to the Pioneer Press) gets at what drives me up the wall about all of that.

She describes J.D. Vance's Fraud Tracker task force, which will turn Department of Justice resources to crack down on small frauds. In the past, prosecutors could go after large-scale white collar crimes, which of course take longer to pursue and require more resources. Now, the attorneys have to carry at least 25 cases at a time: easy to do if there's only one count per case, but not very likely to allow for long-term, complex cases. 

McQuade says that during her 19 years as a federal prosecutor, for instance, SNAP fraud cases were treated as civil enforcement rather than criminal cases. The dollar amounts involved were in the thousands. Or her office would give the cases to state attorneys general or local DAs. That left her office the resources it needed to deal with cases that required wiretaps, national or international jurisdiction, and grand juries. To deal with, you know, corporations — where the real money was being stolen.

The Trump regime has also gotten rid of cryptocurrency enforcement, when the main use case for crypto is money laundering. They have have cut the DOJ workforce by 20,000. And, of course, Trump has famously pardoned or otherwise given clemency to more than 70 convicted fraudsters, so that tells us how seriously this regime takes fraud.

Two things McQuade lists that I had not heard about: the DOJ dismissed two cases against corporations that had been fully investigated and charged, one of which already had a plea and $1.1 billion fine agreed on. They just dismissed them. Never mind!

All of this tells corporations that they're free to do whatever they want, that "everyone is doing it." 

It's a weird thing, because in Minnesota, all of this corporate fraud gets no attention. (This MinnPost column by a progressive writer is the only thing I've seen that counters it, up until the PiPress reprinted McQuade's column. The Star Tribune constantly beats the fraud drum.) 

The heavy emphasis on fraud by immigrants in Minnesota clearly says it's not everyone doing it, and particularly not corporations... it's only those people.