USTP Criminal Referrals to U.S. Attorneys, FY2006–2024

Public data reproduced from the U.S. Trustee Program’s annual Reports to Congress: bankruptcy-related criminal referrals made to United States Attorneys each fiscal year, with the formal charges filed and prosecutions declined as of each report’s date. A neutral reference for researchers, journalists, and the public.

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The U.S. Trustee Program refers suspected bankruptcy crimes to United States Attorneys under 18 U.S.C. § 3057 and reports the volume annually to Congress (Section 1175, Pub. L. 109-162). The table reproduces each year’s reported figures verbatim; OBP adds no adjustment or interpretation. See our methodology.

Read the “formal charges” column carefully. Each year’s charge count is a point-in-time snapshot as of that report’s date (shown in the last column), typically only a few months after the fiscal year closes. White-collar criminal cases routinely take more than two years to reach a charging decision, so most referrals remain under investigation or review when the report is issued. These figures are not final disposition counts and do not capture charges filed later, nor prosecutions of prior-year referrals (for example, the FY2024 report separately notes 40 additional prosecutions that arose from referrals made in earlier years).
Criminal referrals, formal charges filed, and declinations, by fiscal year charges filed = as of the report date shown
Fiscal yearReferrals
made		Formal charges filed
(as of report date)		Prosecutions
declined		Report date
FY 200692542230Dec 31, 2006
FY 20071,16321324Jan 2, 2008
FY 20081,47121444Oct 27, 2008
FY 20091,61124543Jan 4, 2010
FY 20101,72125587Dec 6, 2010
FY 20111,96819677Dec 6, 2011
FY 20122,12027738Jan 10, 2013
FY 20132,07410766Jan 30, 2014
FY 20142,08012850Jan 22, 2015
FY 20152,13110845Jan 7, 2016
FY 20162,15816723Jan 9, 2017
FY 20172,1719851Feb 20, 2018
FY 20182,2579879Mar 22, 2019
FY 20192,2806746Mar 20, 2020
FY 20202,48911759Mar 1, 2021
FY 20212,24415992Aug 31, 2022
FY 20222,1047965Jun 1, 2023
FY 20232,25513889Jul 3, 2024
FY 20242,21116758Aug 1, 2025
Total FY2006–202437,43331313,566

Notes: “Referrals made” is the count of bankruptcy and bankruptcy-related criminal referrals the USTP made to U.S. Attorneys that fiscal year. “Formal charges filed” and “declined” reflect the disposition of that year’s referrals as of the report date; the remainder were under investigation or review at that time. Counts of referrals still pending are reported inconsistently across years and are omitted here to avoid comparing differently-defined figures.

Across FY2006–2024 the USTP made 37,433 bankruptcy-related criminal referrals. As of each year’s report date, a small share had resulted in formal charges and several hundred per year were declined for prosecution, with the large remainder still under investigation or review — consistent with the multi-year timeline the Program describes for white-collar cases. Because the charge counts are point-in-time snapshots, they understate the eventual number of prosecutions arising from these referrals.

Source: United States Trustee Program (U.S. Department of Justice), annual Report to Congress: Criminal Referrals by the United States Trustee Program, fiscal years 2006–2024 (Section 1175, Pub. L. 109-162). Figures reproduced as published; charge and declination counts are as of each report’s stated date and are not final dispositions. Primary source: justice.gov/ust. Derived presentation by the Open Bankruptcy Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 41-5159631), under CC BY-SA 4.0. Spotted an error? Submit a correction.

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