![[workbook]](img/cmw-pic-indx.jpg)
Self-help for
victims of ID
theft and fraud
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In an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 titled
"The FBI's terrorism trade-off," P-I reporters Paul Shukovsky, Tracy Johnson and Daniel Lathrop report that:
The FBI's focus on national security since 9/11 has left a trail of frustrated victims and potentially billions (that's billions with a B) of dollars in fraud and theft losses. Essentially, the agency has turned its back on thousands of white-collar crimes, declining to investigate and prosecute them in federal court. In many cases they are not prosecuted at all. The White House and the Justice Department have failed to replace at least 2,400 agents transferred from criminal investigations to counterterrorism squads. Consequently, the number of criminal cases investigated by the FBI nationally has steadily declined, and white-collar crime investigations have plummeted. "In Western Washington, for example, the drop has been even more dramatic. Records show that the FBI sent 28 white-collar cases to prosecutors in 2005, down 90 percent from five years earlier." The FBI also declines to investigate most cases of identity theft. Agents are routinely urging banks or lawyers representing victims to do the investigating themselves. Even then, the FBI won't necessarily prosecute the criminals. According to the article, one top FBI official, recently retired and speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Bush administration is forcing the bureau to "cannibalize" its traditional crime-fighting units in the name of fighting terrorism. He said that "There's a niche of fraudsters that are floating around unprosecuted. They are not going to jail. There is no law enforcement solution in sight." For now, investigation and prosecution has been largely left to local police departments who are far less able than the FBI to conduct complex fraud investigations, who have no national or world-wide network of agents to run down leads nor the jurisdiction to do so, and who are severely limited in their ability to subpoena business records and secure wiretaps. Also, federal sentences tend to be tougher than those of state courts. So, not only are fewer white-collar criminals being prosecuted, those who are serving less time in jail. Click here to read the entire article. Reporters for the P-I spent more than six months analyzing data for this story. They report that Mueller, Gonzales and Ashcroft declined to be interviewed. Who are these ID thieves? Why is it so hard to recover from this crime? |