Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution!

Eric Lichtblau and Kitty Bennett / NY Times

The Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution, according to government data released Thursday by Congress.

In the last few years, the Justice Department has turned more and more often to “deferred prosecutions” to get companies suspected of wrongdoing to pay fines and change their practices without being charged criminally. Often, a corporate monitor is brought in to check on the company’s progress and ensure compliance.

The practice drew attention this year after it was disclosed that John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, had been selected by Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, as a corporate monitor for a medical supply company. The job, assigned without competitive bidding, would pay Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm up to $52 million. Mr. Ashcroft said at a contentious Congressional hearing in March that there was nothing improper about the arrangement.

Since then, Democrats in Congress have been pressing for more information about the use of deferred prosecutions, and the Justice Department responded Thursday by releasing documents showing that it had turned to the corporate agreements 85 times in recent years. (Congressional investigators said they had identified 12 agreements that were not included in the Justice Department’s list, for a total of 97.)

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