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FORTUNE.COM// JA N.1.
themselves incar-
cerated for various
white-collar crimes
around the world.
Two weeks earlier, the
Brazilian-born auto-
motive titan Carlos
Ghosn was arrested
in Tokyo, also nabbed
at an airport, accused
of underreporting
his income and thus
evading taxes. [See
“The Ghosn Show”
in this issue.] Days
after Meng’s arrest,
a top Alibaba execu-
tive, Yang Weidong,
formerly head of the
Internet giant’s music-
streaming business,
was apprehended by
police “for alleged ac-
ceptance of improper
payments,” according
to an Alibaba securi-
ties filing in the U.S.,
where its shares trade.
Each case is differ-
ent, of course, as are
the jurisdictions in
which the various big-
wigs have been locked
up. Taken together,
however, the arrests
give the impression
of an executive class
suddenly less safe from
criminal prosecution
while otherwise jetting
around the globe doing
their jobs. And yet, the
anti-corporate crowd
ought not abandon
their pitchforks just
yet. While it may seem
that white-collar crim-
inals are finally getting
their just deserts,
evidence suggests the
prosecutions remain
relative rarities in therealm of corporate
malfeasance.
The U.S., at least
theoretically, aspires
to put more executives
behind bars. Indeed,
a heightened focus on
prosecuting individual
corporate miscreants is
an official policy goal.
In 2015, then Deputy
Attorney General Sally
Yates issued a much-
discussed seven-page
memorandum on
“individual account-
ability for corporate
wrongdoing,” com-
monly known in
criminal and civil legal
circles as the Yates
Memo. (Yates would
achieve broader fame
in 2017 when, during
a brief stint as acting
attorney general, she
instructed Justice
Department lawyers to
not enforce President
Trump’s travel ban
on several majority-
Muslim countries, an
act for which she was
promptly fired.) Yates’s
guidance, a response
to widespread anger
that not one banking
executive was locked
up after the financial
crisis of 2008–2009,
noted that determin-
ing criminal intent
can be tough in large
corporations, particu-
larly with “high-level
executives, who may
be insulated from the
day-to-day activity in
which the misconduct
occurs.” Yet only by
“seeking accountabil-
ity,” she wrote, couldproper deterrence be
established.
The memo got the
legal community’s
attention. Barbara Lin-
ney, a lawyer special-
izing in export-control
compliance and eco-
nomic sanctions with
the Washington, D.C.,
firm Miller & Cheva-
lier, calls it “a high-
profile statement that
kicked off this view
in the Department of
Justice that individuals
should not be immune
from charges.”
The government has
gone after individuals,
in particular regarding
sanctions-law viola-
tions. Although the
instance of the Huawei
CFO has become a
flash point in the trade
war between the U.S.
and China, hers is
not an isolated case.
“When a senior ex-
ecutive from a global
company is detained,
that catches head-
lines,” says Linney, also
an adjunct professor at
Georgetown Univer-
sity’s law school. “But
there’s been a steady
stream of cases in
which individuals
have been charged.”
For example, in 2017
a banker with Turkey’s
state-controlled Halk-
bank was convicted in
federal court in New
York for his role in
evading sanctions on
Iran and sentenced
to nearly three years
in jail.
Still, the new policydirection is not making
a significant impact
when it comes to
prosecution of U.S.
corporate officers.
“People thought the
Yates Memo would
change that,” says
Brandon Garrett, a law
professor at Duke Uni-
versity and author of
the 2014 bookToo Big
to Jail: How Prosecu-
tors Compromise With
Corporations. “But I
haven’t seen numbers
to suggest it has.”
In Japan, where
Ghosn’s arrest trig-NO LONGER
‘TOO BIG
TO JAIL’?
IT MAYBE TOO EARLY
to call it a trend, but
It does appear to
be less safe these
days to be a C-suite
jet-setter sus-
pected of a serious
crime. A few recent,
startling arrests of
corporate execu-
tives for white-
collar crimes have
highlighted the
willingness of pros-
ecutors, in the U.S.
and abroad, to seek
criminal account-
ability for corporate
misconduct.