Posts Tagged ‘Justice Department’
Justice Dept. Shifts on New Fraud Prosecutor
The Justice Department is apparently changing course on its recently announced new assistant attorney general for fraud investigations, telling Congress that the person holding the job will report to the deputy attorney general’s office — not directly to the White House, as the White House had previously said. According to an article published Wednesday afternoon…
Read MoreOh Lord: Trump’s Latest Enforcement Idea
The Trump Administration is creating a new Justice Department division to fight fraud in government funding. All you government contractors out there, tread carefully; this idea raises thorny legal and political questions and further undermines the Justice Department’s reputation for integrity. Vice president J.D. Vance announced the news on Thursday, and said the new division…
Read MoreGood Compliance Wins Another Declination
Well look at that, compliance community! A plastics importer in upstate New York has avoided criminal prosecution for tariffs evasion because the company did everything right by U.S. Justice Department standards: self-disclosed its misconduct, helped prosecutors nail its now-former chief operating officer, and improved its compliance program. The company in question is MGI International, which…
Read MoreMore Muddled Messages From DOJ
An update on anti-corruption enforcement in the United States: one week after the deputy attorney general lectured compliance officers that no, really, the Trump 2.0 Administration is serious about enforcement and not just targeting foreign business rivals, prosecutors have dropped two corruption cases related to FIFA while preparing to hammer Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp.…
Read MoreCompliance Amid ‘Aggravating Circumstances’
Today let’s return to some issues raised during last week’s ACI conference about FCPA enforcement. Speakers offered a few examples of when the Justice Department might still press for vigorous prosecution (rather than a straightforward declination), and compliance officers have much to consider here. For starters, let’s remember that the Justice Department announced new, more…
Read MoreDOJ Talks Enforcement; White House Tramples Message
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche gave a high-profile speech to corporate compliance professionals on Thursday — but really, should we care? Because Blanche’s boss in the Oval Office is pardoning fraudsters so fast and furious these days that you can’t trust anything Blanche proclaims as policy. For the record, Blanche delivered a keynote address Thursday…
Read MoreJustice Dept. Talks FCPA Again
The Justice Department is launching a charm offensive with the FCPA compliance community this week, telling compliance professionals at a conference in Washington today that enforcement is returning to “more of the traditional cadence” and we can expect to see more enforcement actions next year. Whether anyone believes those words is another matter, and we’ll…
Read MoreNo, the FCPA Is Not ‘Back’
Folks, we need to have a conversation about all these legal bulletins, marketing emails, and conference agendas declaring that enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices is now somehow “back,” simply because the Justice Department released guidelines the other week explaining how it will consider FCPA enforcement from here forward. Snap out of it. FCPA enforcement…
Read MoreThe New FCPA Era Arrives
Well, the Justice Department has published its much-anticipated guidelines for future enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — and honestly, they’re a bit anticlimactic. Nothing in the new policies should surprise anyone who’s been paying attention, and nothing in them should change your compliance program all that much. The policy changes came in two…
Read MoreJustice Dept. Promises More Declinations
The Justice Department has announced new, more relaxed policies for when it will prosecute corporate crime, promising “a clear path to declination” that bypasses the criminal resolution process entirely for companies that self-disclose and remediate their misconduct. Matthew Galeotti, acting head of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, announced the new policy in a…
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