The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to increase prosecutionsof individual employees for corporate crime and coax companies toturn over evidence on executives after criticism that thegovernment failed to punish wrongdoers in the financial crisis.

Sally Quillian Yates, the department's No. 2 official, orderedpolicy changes to push prosecutors to reinvigorate cases, accordingto a memo she issued Wednesday. Under the new approach, onlycompanies that disclose information about individual wrongdoing maybe eligible for lesser penalties for cooperating.

“Our mission here is not to recover the largest amount of moneyfrom the greatest number of corporations,” Yates plans to sayThursday at a speech at New York University School of Law,according to excerpts released by the Justice Department. “Our jobis to seek accountability from those who break our laws andvictimize our citizens. It's the only way to truly deter corporatewrongdoing.”