Justice Department Backtracks: The department urged adoption...

Justice Department Backtracks: The department urged adoption of sentencing guidelines for corporations convicted of crimes that would force judges to impose fines based on the seriousness of the offense. But the department shied away from a proposal it had earlier advanced under which a company involved in a massive fraud could be fined twice its gain or twice the loss to its victims. The department rescinded its support for one of the proposals under consideration, as well as its own suggestion, after receiving an inquiry from the White House, which had been contacted by some business groups expressing concern over stiff fines.