U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at NYU Law School’s Tishman Auditorium Sept. 17 about corporate crime and compliance.

The event was co-sponsored by the law school’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement and Milbank Tweed Forum. It was led by NYU law professors Jennifer Arlen and Geoffrey Miller.

Holder began the conference by addressing recent financial crises the United States has faced, including the 2008 recession. He said he understood why the American people are angered by the lack of convictions after the crash.

“This has been a source of frustration for the public for a long time,” Holder said. “I understand and share that frustration. But despite the commitment and tireless work of our prosecutors, we cannot bring cases unless, based upon the facts and the law, we believe that we are likely to succeed in court.”

Miller said Holder’s thoughts on corporate law were similar to the goals of NYU’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement.

“Attorney General Holder emphasized the importance of developing a culture of compliance within complex organizations and clarified that no institution is too big to prosecute,” Miller said. “He endorsed the growth of effective and robust compliance programs — one of the key objectives of our new program.”

Holder added that witnesses are vital for convicting the perpetrators of corporate crime. He referenced an incident in 2011 in which an insider trading case was resolved with the cooperation of someone inside the company, and said witnesses have played an important role in retrieving money taken from citizens.

“They have strengthened our ability to follow leads, to obtain guilty pleas from subsidiaries of major banks like UBS and RBS and to pursue individual charges against nine former traders and managers at these institutions,” Holder said. “Our ongoing investigation into the manipulation of foreign exchange rates has relied on similar investigative techniques involving undercover cooperators.”

Holder also said he wanted to encourage more whistleblowers to come forward, assuring the audience that the government is not afraid to go after any corporation, regardless of its size.

“No institution is too large to prosecute,” Holder said. “We must put that myth to rest.”

 A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Sept. 18 print edition. Nicole Johnson is a contributing writer. E-mail her at [email protected]