DOJ Leverages Immigration Laws in Criminal Antitrust Cases

May 21, 2010
Washington Legal Foundation Counsel's Advisory
Eric Grannon

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This article discusses a troubling trend in white-collar crime cases: non-US executives whose companies are accused of criminal antitrust violations are threatened with deportation and a 15-year minimum travel ban from the United States if the executives do not accept a plea bargain of guilty. In a classic example of prosecutorial overreach, Justice Department policy simply deems a violation of the Sherman Act to be a "crime involving moral turpitude," which subjects non-US persons to exclusion from the United States, even though there is no legal support for that conclusion.