Editor's note.

• Author: Greenwood, Lee

Welcome to the Twenty-Fourth Edition of the Annual Survey of White Collar Crime. Our goal every year is to provide readers with current and relevant information regarding federal white collar criminal offenses. To that end, this issue includes an essay on the criminal and regulatory implications of the current financial crisis, in which the authors attempt to answer the complex question of whether the conduct causing the crisis is criminal or simply bad business judgment.

Andrew J. Ceresney, partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, NY and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and Gordon Eng and Scan R. Nuttall, associates at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, have authored an essay entitled Regulatory Investigations and the Credit Crisis: The Search for Villains. Their piece discusses the relatively few federal investigations into the conduct surrounding the financial crisis, specifically those relating to mortgage fraud, major financial institutions, and legal and illegal short-selling. The piece then turns to state law enforcement efforts to respond to the financial crisis, noting the differences in the goals and approaches of state investigations compared to their federal counterparts. The piece concludes by offering predictions about the potential...