If Chris Wallace Asks About Street Crime He Should Also Ask About Corporate Crime

Pity Chris Wallace.

The Fox News anchor will be the moderator for the final Presidential debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

He’s now being inundated by friends, relatives, colleagues, people he doesn’t even know saying — ask the Hillary this, ask the Trump that.

And of course, Chris Wallace will ask what he deems newsworthy.

But if he asks about street crime, he should also ask about corporate crime, which has been widely ignored during the Presidential campaign.

This despite the fact that corporate crime and violence inflicts far more damage on society that all street crime combined.

And guessing that his staff at Fox News does not have a deep file on corporate crime, as a public service, Corporate Crime Reporter presents here some possible questions Chris Wallace might consider asking Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Even corporate crime defense attorneys admit that corporate crime prosecutors at the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are being starved for funds and that increasing their budgets is the quickest way to deter corporate crime. Would you substantially increase the budgets of the corporate crime police and prosecutors?

Every year, the FBI puts out a Crime in the United States report. Unfortunately, this report for the most part ignores corporate and white collar crime and focuses almost exclusively on street crime. Would you require the Justice Department to put out a companion Corporate Crime in the United States report?

The prosecution of corporate crime in America often ends up with no fault settlements. These include deferred and non prosecution agreements brought by the Justice Department and neither admit nor deny consent decrees brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If elected President, would you encourage your prosecutors to require either guilty pleas by the Justice Department or admissions by the Securities and Exchange Commission in cases of serious wrongdoing that involve law violations?

Even in cases of serious wrongdoing that involve law violation, top executives of major American corporate criminals are rarely prosecuted. No top executive from a major bank went to prison in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. No top BP executive in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Would you demand such prosecutions in these types of cases?

More than 4,500 workers die every year from preventable workplace incidents, with 50,000 more succumbing to work-related illnesses. That means that on an average day in America, 13 workers die on the job, thousands are injured and 150 succumb to diseases they obtained from exposure to carcinogens and other toxic and hazardous substances while they worked.

The maximum period of incarceration upon conviction for a violation that costs a worker’s life is six months in jail, making these crimes a misdemeanor. Criminal penalties under federal occupational safety law are inadequate for deterring the most egregious employer wrongdoing.

Do you agree that serious violations of the worker health and safety laws that result in death or serious bodily injury should be felonies like insider trading, tax crimes, customs violations and antitrust violations?

In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky wrote that what man feared most was “taking a new step, uttering a new word.”

Overcome your fears, Chris Wallace.

Utter the words — corporate crime and violence.

Name names — HSBC. Wal-Mart. General Motors. Volkswagen. Wells Fargo. BP. JP Morgan Chase. UBS. Massey Energy. Halliburton.

Be strong.

Will be watching on Wednesday.

Russell Mokhiber is the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter..