THE BIZOP NEWS

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The US Senate has approved new money for fraud investigations.

"In recent months, amid the financial crisis that has roiled the U.S. economy, a rising number of securities and accounting fraud cases have surfaced, accounting for billions of dollars in losses for investors.

But the agencies on the front lines of policing the Wall Street's top financial institutions and investment managers have been hamstrung by a lack of resources. 

Since September 11, 2001, when the nation's law enforcement priorities understandably shifted to counterterrorism efforts, the ranks of personnel at white-collar crime units have declined sharply.

By some published estimates, the Bush administration failed to replace at least 2,400 FBI agents who were transferred to counterterrorism squads.

As a result, the FBI's white collar units are currently down at least 625 agents from pre-9/11 levels, a reduction of 36 percent. 

Many United States Attorneys' offices throughout the country have been subjected to hiring and budget freezes. 

The number of new Assistant United States Attorneys has grown by around .5% each year during recent years. 

But new hires have been allocated to prosecuting internet crime, immigration offenses, and gangs - important areas, to be sure, but none more emergent than financial fraud during our current crisis.

As a result, from 2000-2007, the number of prosecutions of frauds against financial institutions plummeted by 48 percent."

Most of this money will go to prosecuting fraud that is already in the pipeline; it will do nothing to prevent fraud in the next couple of years.