WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department marked the second anniversary of its corporate task force Tuesday after obtaining 500 corporate convictions or guilty pleas.
The task force also charged more than 900 defendants and 60 corporate chiefs with some type of corporate fraud crime in connection with 400 cases.
The anniversary observance was a bit late, since President George W. Bush created the task force July 9, 2002.
Bush acted in the face of numerous corporate scandals, mostly involving improper accounting, and company collapses.
Besides the prosecutions of 31 former Enron Corp. executives, a number of high profile cases have resulted in convictions in the Adelphia, Craig Consumer Electronics, Dynegy, Martha Stewart, Frank Quattrone, Unify, Graham-Field Health Products and U.S. Technologies matters, the department said.
In addition, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a $2.25 billion civil penalty, the largest in history, against WorldCom.
The SEC also brought and settled cases against mutual funds and their executives, financial services providers, and brokers for alleged fraudulent conduct relating to market timing and late trading in fund shares.
