Between 2003 and 2009, the number of fraud cases investigated by the U.S. Justice Department saw a steep decline—including a 44% drop in bankruptcy fraud cases, according to an article in USA Today.
Bankruptcy fraud, corporate fraud and securities fraud cases all received less attention from Federal prosecutors, according to Justice Department documents, with corporate fraud cases falling 55%, even as our country fell into economic crisis.
And while the number of new fraud cases filed in federal courts has increased over the past few months as investigators struggle to prevent another financial mess, the case load is still lighter than it was at the beginning of the decade.
What is Bankruptcy Fraud?
Bankruptcy fraud is a federal felony offense that may include concealment of assets or debts from the bankruptcy petition. Failure to include an asset when filing bankruptcy is one of the most forms of bankruptcy fraud, and often includes "giving" a valuable asset, such as a car, to a relative or friend to protect it from liquidation.
If a debtor has transferred or sold any property within two years of filing bankruptcy, such property may be taken by the bankruptcy trustee as an asset.
According to the USA Today article, the Justice Department filed only 82 charges of bankruptcy fraud in the fiscal year ending September 20, 2009—despite nearly 1.5 million bankruptcies being filed in that time.
Tags: asset, bankruptcy fraud, Justice Department
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Legal Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] Bankruptcy Fraud Investigations Declining | The Bankruptcy Blog [...]
It is estimated that 80 per cent of work place fraud is committed by company employees, who in desperate times in this recession are resorting to stealing.
Due to salaries and bonuses being slashed, many workers are finding their pay much lower than used to, which is leading them to the temptation to ‘fiddle’ books.