A new study has found that penalties charged to corporations by government agencies meant to police private sector wrongdoing have dropped by as much as 94% under Donald Trump, compared to Barack Obama, his predecessor.

The study from consumer rights non-profit Public Citizen used data from the database “violation tracker”, a project of the thinktank Good Jobs First, to track penalties assessed against corporations by 12 federal agencies including the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In 11 of the 12 federal agencies studied, Public Citizen found that the amount of civil penalties applied against corporate rule-breakers had declined - in some cases by huge numbers - from Trump’s first year in office when compared to Obama’s last. For example, compliance penalty fines by the EPA went down from $23.87b to $1.86b – a drop of around 94%.

But there were huge drops elsewhere too. At the DoJ the drop in penalties levied against corporate wrongdoers was 90%, at the Federal Communications Commission 85% and at the Securities and Exchange Commission it fell 68%.

In one case, Obama’s EPA had announced just before Trump’s inauguration that it was seeking $4.8m in penalties against the pesticide manufacturer Syngenta Seeds for violating safety rules that protect workers from being poisoned. Trump’s EPA under former director Scott Pruitt cut the penalty a year later to $550,000, or 11% of the original fine.

“When it comes to large corporations, the supposedly ‘tough-on-crime’ Trump administration is undertaking an epic retreat from law enforcement – slashing fines, declining to bring cases against corporate wrongdoers and cutting enforcement programs,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

“The message to big business couldn’t be more clear: feel free to run roughshod over rules that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat as well as ensure the safety of the cars we drive and protect us against bank rip-offs and consumer fraud,” Weissman continued.

The report only covered the span of three years, from the last two years of the Obama administration to Trump’s first year. Researchers concede that year to year penalties can vary wildly, but argue that the overall trend is unmistakable and sharply down.

“It’s not unfair to expect some decline, and in a different administration, a decline might just be a delay. But looking at the policies this administration is putting in place, we expect this first year to be the high water mark for corporate enforcement and not a temporary ebb that will be made up for by a large increase later,” said Rick Claypool, a research director with Public Citizen.

Claypool notes that many Trump administration officials have criticized past corporate enforcement efforts and plainly stated plans to deemphasize it.

For example, acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Mick Mulvaney recently said that under his watch, “regulation by enforcement” is over.

Similarly, CFTC director of enforcement James McDonald recently told an audience “You can’t prosecute unlawful conduct out of existence” at a talk in New York.

“Deputy attorney general Rosenstein has stated that corporations should be viewed as ‘law enforcement partners’ and implemented policies that will reduce corporate penalties and help corporations avoid prosecution,” Claypool said.

He continued: “Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ enforcement policy against first-time border crossings and street crimes has rightly grabbed headlines, but what makes this even more shocking is how these so-called tough on crime policies coincide with policies that decrease prosecutions and penalties for giant lawbreaking corporations.”