In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new White Collar Crime Enforcement Plan, with the stated purpose of establishing focus, fairness, and efficiency in the fight against white collar crime. The plan instructs DOJ prosecutors to “avoid overreach that punishes risk-taking and hinders innovation by legitimate enterprises working to secure value for their shareholders and quality products and services for their customers.”
Crimes Prioritized for Prosecution
The plan directs the DOJ’s Criminal Division to prioritize investigation and prosecution of the following areas:
- Waste, fraud, and abuse, including health care fraud and federal program and procurement fraud that harm the public fisc;
- Trade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion;
- Fraud perpetrated through VIEs (Variable Interest Entities), including, but not limited to, offering fraud, “ramp and dumps,” elder fraud, securities fraud, and other market manipulation schemes;
- Fraud that victimizes U.S. investors, individuals, and markets, including, but not limited to, Ponzi schemes, investment fraud, elder fraud, servicemember fraud, and fraud that threatens the health and safety of consumers;
- Conduct that threatens the country’s national security, including threats to the U.S. financial system by gatekeepers, such as financial institutions and their insiders, that commit sanctions violations or enable transactions by cartels, TCOs (Transnational Criminal Organizations), hostile nation-states, and/or foreign terrorist organizations;
- Material support by corporations to foreign terrorist organizations, including recently designated cartels and TCOs;
- Complex money laundering, including Chinese money laundering organizations and other organizations involved in laundering funds used in the manufacturing of illegal drugs;
- Violations of the Controlled Substances Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), including the unlawful manufacture and distribution of chemicals and equipment used to create counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, and unlawful distribution of opioids by medical professionals and companies;
- Bribery and associated money laundering that impact U.S. national interests, undermine U.S. national security, harm the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, and enrich foreign corrupt officials; and
- As provided by the Digital Assets DAG Memorandum: crimes (1) involving digital assets that victimize investors and consumers; (2) that use digital assets in furtherance of other criminal conduct; and (3) willful violations that facilitate significant criminal activity. Cases impacting victims, involving cartels, TCOs, or terrorist groups, or facilitating drug money laundering or sanctions evasion, receive the highest priority.
Where Things Stand in 2026
The plan itself remains in effect, but two developments from the past year are worth flagging for anyone tracking DOJ’s white collar posture.
New leadership at the Criminal Division. Matthew Galeotti, who authored the original enforcement plan, has since left the DOJ; he joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in March 2026. The Senate confirmed Andrew Tysen Duva as the new Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division in December 2025, and he was sworn in that December. Duva is a career line prosecutor rather than a political appointee with prior ties to the administration, and industry observers have noted his approach to the role, including how closely he adheres to his predecessor’s priorities, is still being watched closely.
Reduced staffing alongside targeted enforcement pushes. DOJ’s 2026 budget reduced Criminal Division staffing by roughly 50 attorneys, which has contributed to a lower overall volume of corporate enforcement actions. At the same time, some specific priority areas have seen active enforcement: DOJ launched a cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force in August 2025 targeting the trade and customs fraud priority, and individual FCPA prosecutions have reportedly continued at a fairly steady pace even as the number of corporate FCPA resolutions has dropped.
Beyond DOJ, the SEC has described its own enforcement approach under Chairman Paul Atkins as “back-to-basics,” prioritizing traditional securities fraud cases with clear investor harm over more novel legal theories, which is relevant context for clients facing parallel DOJ and SEC scrutiny.
Legal industry coverage over the past year has also described several notable prosecutions from the prior administration being resolved, narrowed, or discontinued, with some corporate resolutions shifting toward declinations for companies that self-report and cooperate. Separately, the president has used the pardon power on a number of individuals connected to business and financial crimes. Two examples from the past year illustrate the range of resolutions defense counsel should be tracking:
- In October 2025, the president granted a full and unconditional pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao, a Canadian citizen born in China, had pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program at Binance; U.S. authorities had said at the time that the company failed to report suspicious transactions connected to organizations including Hamas and al-Qaeda, as well as websites associated with child sexual abuse material. Zhao personally paid a $50 million fine and served roughly four months in prison before the pardon.
- Also in October 2025, Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor known publicly as “Bitcoin Jesus,” reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ resolving a tax evasion case tied to unreported cryptocurrency holdings. Ver agreed to pay nearly $50 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest, and the government agreed to move to dismiss the underlying indictment.
Conclusion
The new enforcement posture presents practical challenges for defense counsel handling white collar matters. A more selective prosecutorial approach can create genuine uncertainty: with fewer cases being brought, the DOJ has more leverage and discretion in the matters it does choose to pursue, and outcomes may depend heavily on case-specific factors like early cooperation, voluntary self-disclosure, and the specific priority area involved. The recent change in Criminal Division leadership adds another layer of uncertainty, since it isn’t yet clear how closely the new Assistant Attorney General will hew to the priorities his predecessor set. Defense counsel should stay closely attuned to how these priorities are applied in practice, since a more targeted enforcement policy does not necessarily translate into more favorable or predictable outcomes for individual clients. If you or your business is under investigation or facing indictment for a white collar crime, contact the John T. Floyd Law Firm for experienced representation.
