Federal prosecutors have signalled a meaningful recalibration of white-collar enforcement priorities entering 2026. Five trends are reshaping how cases are charged, tried, and resolved, and they merit close attention from counsel representing individuals and institutions in this space.
First, the Department of Justice has narrowed its corporate-resolution menu, reducing the availability of non-prosecution agreements for repeat issues and tightening cooperation-credit eligibility. Second, parallel criminal and regulatory exposure is increasingly the norm, with the SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, and OFAC coordinating on case selection. Third, individual accountability remains the lodestar, with senior executives more likely to face charges where corporate cooperation falls short of regulator expectations. Fourth, white-collar defendants are increasingly choosing trial rather than plea where the government's evidence is technical or circumstantial. Fifth, defence strategy now routinely incorporates a public-facing dimension that earlier generations of trial counsel did not contemplate.
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