Michael DeBernardis Discusses Potential 2026 Increase in White-Collar Enforcement

Dec. 17, 2025 – Michael DeBernardis spoke to Anti-Corruption Report about a predicted increase in white-collar criminal enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2026.

The article synthesizes comments made by DOJ leaders at two recent white-collar enforcement conferences about predicted enforcement trends in the new year, after a tumultuous 10 months of executive orders, changes in DOJ staff, and new enforcement priorities and guidance.

Among those predictions, DeBernardis said that he anticipates an uptick in enforcement in 2026 because there will be “an effort to demonstrate that the DOJ will still aggressively pursue white-collar crime.”

After having spent large parts of 2025 in a transition period, with significant turnover and a good deal of upheaval, “the circumstances will settle a bit in 2026, and people will get back to what they have been trained to do,” he predicted.

Read the article.