Official Corruption Prosecutions for March 2025
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2025 the government reported 27 new official corruption prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 68.8 percent over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged with official corruption-related offenses are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 1).
When monthly 2025 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-5.6%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 35.6 percent from levels reported in 2020.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Official Corruption Prosecutions
The decrease from the levels five years ago in official corruption prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of official corruption prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Within the broad category of official corruption, cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
Case types within official corruption are
Federal Corruption - Procurement
Federal Corruption - Program
Federal Corruption - Law Enforcement
Federal Corruption - Other
State Corruption
Local Corruption
Other Public Corruption
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in March 2025 was for "Corruption(Govt Off)-Local", accounting for 25.9 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Corruption(Govt Off)-State" (18.5%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Fed Procurement" (14.8%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Other" (14.8%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Fed Other" (11.1%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Fed Program" (11.1%), "Corruption(Govt Off)-Fed Law Enforcement" (3.7%). See Figure 2.
The lead investigative agency for official corruption prosecutions in March 2025 was FBI accounting for 59 percent of prosecutions referred. Other agencies with substantial numbers of official corruption referrals were: Postal (22% ), USAO (7%), DHS (4%), Education (4%). See Figure 3.
Official Corruption Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2025, 3 defendants in official corruption cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in March the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343 involving "Fraud by wire, radio, or television". This was the lead charge for 66.7 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Official Corruption Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2025, 24 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 0 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during March.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of official corruption matters filed in U.S. District Court during March 2025.
Lead Charge Count Rank 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 5 1 More 18 USC 666 - Theft or bribery in programs receiving Fed funds 4 2 More 18 USC 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses 3 3 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 3 3 More 18 USC 1709 - Theft of mail matter by officer or employee 2 5 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 2 5 More 16 USC 666 - Authorization of appropriations 1 7 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 1 7 More 18 USC 1503 - Influencing or injuring officer or juror generally 1 7 More 18 USC 1952 - Racketeering -interstate/foreign travel/transport 1 7 More 18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities 1 7 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Fraud by wire, radio, or television" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343) was the most frequent recorded lead charge.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Theft or bribery in programs receiving Fed funds" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 666.
Ranked 3rd were "Bribery of public officials and witnesses" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 201 and "Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 371.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 8.6 official corruption prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the number of official corruption prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions of this type last month are shown in Table 3.
Judicial District Count Rank Texas, N 4 1 More Ala, N 3 2 More Conn 2 3 More N. Y., E 2 3 More Penn, E 2 3 More Ind, N 1 6 More La, E 1 6 More Mass 1 6 More Mo, W 1 6 More N Mexico 1 6 More N. J. 1 6 More N. Y., S 1 6 More Ohio, N 1 6 More S Car 1 6 More Texas, S 1 6 More Wisc, E 1 6 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts
The Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth) — with 4 prosecutions — was the most active during March 2025.
The Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham) ranked 2nd.
District of Connecticut, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) and Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) are now ranking 3rd.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new official corruption crime cases of this type during March 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Johnson, Herman N., Jr. Ala, N 2 1 More Matsumoto, Kiyo A. N. Y., E 2 1 More Maze, Corey Landon Ala, N 1 3 More Ketchmark, Roseann Ambrosia Mo, W 1 3 More Riggs, Kea Whetzal N Mexico 1 3 More Martini, William J. N. J. 1 3 More Boyko, Christopher A. Ohio, N 1 3 More Beetlestone, Wendy Penn, E 1 3 More Kacsmaryk, Matthew Joseph Texas, N 1 3 More Hoyt, Kenneth M. Texas, S 1 3 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
All 10 of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of official corruption filings.
Judges Herman N. Johnson, Jr. in the Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham) and Kiyo A. Matsumoto in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) ranked 1st with 2 defendants in official corruption cases.
Judges Corey Landon Maze in the Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham), Roseann Ambrosia Ketchmark in the Western District of Missouri (Kansas City), Kea Whetzal Riggs in the District of New Mexico, William J. Martini in the District of New Jersey, Christopher A. Boyko in the Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland), Wendy Beetlestone in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth) and Kenneth M. Hoyt in the Southern Distri ranked 3rd with 1 defendants in official corruption cases.
Report Generated: May 14, 2025
