Corporate Prosecution Registry
Searchable database of every federal corporate criminal prosecution in the United States since 1990 — built by UVA Law, free, and continuously updated.
What should journalists know about Corporate Prosecution Registry?
The Corporate Prosecution Registry is the only comprehensive public database of federal corporate criminal prosecutions in the United States. It contains every case since 1990 where the Department of Justice charged a business entity (not just individuals) with a federal crime — including deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), non-prosecution agreements (NPAs), guilty pleas, and trial convictions. The database is searchable by company name, industry, charge type, district, year, outcome, and penalty amount. The project was created and is maintained by Professor Brandon Garrett at the University of Virginia School of Law. Garrett is a leading legal scholar on corporate crime whose book "Too Big to Jail" (2014) drew heavily on this data to document how major corporations avoided criminal conviction through deferred prosecution agreements. The registry makes that underlying research data publicly accessible and continuously updated. For journalists, this is a first-stop resource when writing about any company facing criminal charges or any company with a history of federal enforcement actions. Search a company name and you get every federal criminal case against them — charges, dates, jurisdiction, outcome, fine amount, whether they got a DPA or NPA, and the monitor appointed (if any). Search by industry and you can identify patterns: which sectors face the most prosecutions, which types of crimes dominate, how penalties have changed over time. The data reveals stories that press releases miss. A company announcing a DPA as "resolving" an investigation may have three prior DPAs in the registry — a pattern of repeat offending that prosecutors rewarded with leniency each time. A fine that sounds large in a press release may be small relative to the company's revenue or relative to fines in comparable cases. The registry gives you the denominator for context. The database covers federal cases only — not state prosecutions, SEC civil enforcement, EPA administrative actions, or international enforcement. This is a significant limitation: many corporate enforcement actions happen at the state level or through civil/administrative channels that this registry does not capture. For complete enforcement history, supplement with SEC EDGAR enforcement releases, EPA enforcement databases, state attorney general press releases, and the FCPA Clearinghouse for foreign bribery cases. The registry is updated by research assistants at UVA Law who monitor DOJ press releases, court filings, and PACER records. Update frequency is generally monthly. Very recent cases (within the last few weeks) may not yet be in the database.
Researching a company's federal criminal prosecution history. Identifying patterns of corporate recidivism (repeat DPAs). Contextualizing a new prosecution against historical enforcement trends. Comparing penalties across similar cases. Investigating DOJ enforcement priorities by industry, district, or time period. Finding deferred and non-prosecution agreements that companies may not publicize. Academic research on corporate criminal law enforcement.
State-level corporate prosecutions — federal only. Civil enforcement (SEC, FTC, EPA civil actions) — this is criminal cases only. Individual executive prosecutions — this tracks corporate entities, not people. International enforcement — US federal jurisdiction only. Real-time case monitoring — updates are monthly, not daily. Private litigation or class action lawsuits — criminal prosecutions only.
Security & Privacy
Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers
Data is scrambled when stored on their servers
Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data
Privacy policy summary
No account required. No registration, no login, no personal data collection beyond standard web server logs and any university-standard analytics. The database contains public federal court records and DOJ announcements — no personal or proprietary information. Operated under University of Virginia's institutional policies. Minimal privacy footprint for users.
How to protect yourself:
No login required — search freely without creating any account or digital trail on the platform. The data is entirely derived from public federal court records, so there are no access restrictions or sensitivity concerns. Cross-reference registry entries against original court filings on PACER for full case documents. Supplement with SEC enforcement actions (sec.gov), state AG databases, and the FCPA Clearinghouse for complete corporate enforcement history. Verify fine amounts against company financial filings to calculate penalties as percentage of revenue. For very recent cases, check DOJ press releases directly if the registry hasn't been updated.
Hosted by a major US public university with institutional IT infrastructure and security. No user accounts, no personal data collection, no login required. The data is entirely public federal court records with zero sensitivity. No advertising, no tracking beyond standard university analytics. The threat model is essentially zero — you are searching public court records on a university website. No record of security incidents. Rating reflects the combination of zero-sensitivity public data, no authentication requirements, and institutional hosting.
Who Owns This
Known issues
Federal only: Does not include state criminal prosecutions, which can be significant (state AG cases against pharmaceutical companies, environmental crimes prosecuted at state level, banking violations). For complete corporate criminal history, state databases must be searched separately. Criminal only: Excludes civil enforcement (SEC actions, FTC consent orders, EPA administrative penalties) and regulatory settlements that may involve larger financial penalties than criminal cases. Many corporate enforcement actions are civil, not criminal. Update lag: The registry is updated by research staff, typically monthly. Very recent DOJ announcements may not appear for several weeks. For breaking enforcement news, check DOJ press releases directly. Corporate entities only: Tracks cases against business entities (corporations, LLCs, partnerships), not individual executives. For executive prosecutions, search PACER directly or use DOJ press releases. Historical completeness: While coverage back to 1990 is the goal, some older cases — particularly sealed agreements or cases without public press releases — may be missing. The further back you go, the less complete the record. Single-institution dependency: The registry depends on one professor's research program at one law school. If Professor Garrett moves institutions or the project loses support, continuity could be affected. No formal governance structure beyond the academic appointment.
Pricing
Free. Fully open access with no registration required. Maintained as an academic research project at the University of Virginia School of Law.
This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-11, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.
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