Health Law Wire: US Department Of Justice Chief For The Criminal Division, Leslie R. Caldwell Stresses The Importance Of Effective Compliance Plans At The 22nd Annual Ethics And Compliance Conference On October 2014 (9/14)

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DOJ’s Chief in charge of Criminal Prosecutions has been vocal on increased civil and criminal enforcement efforts. Over the past few months, the US Department of Justice has heightened its enforcement in health fraud matters and joined in a False Claims Act case against a major NYC hospital alleging its failure to report and refund overpayments within 60 days of discovery. Most recently, AAG Caldwell commented on the importance of compliance programs when deciding upon criminal vs. civil sanctions. Here are some quotes:

“More often, we encounter companies with compliance programs that are strong on paper, but much weaker in practice.”

In commenting on a landmark criminal resolution with BNP Paribas, which is the largest bank in France, AAG Caldwell stated: “… unfortunately, rather than push back, the compliance personnel backed down, and continued to allow the illegal transactions. An email summarizing that meeting explained management’s thinking: “[t]he relationship with this body of counterparties (meaning the nine Arab banks) is a historical one and the commercial stakes are significant. For these reasons, Compliance does not want to stand in the way of maintaining this activity *** All of these warnings went unheeded in favor of continued profits. The “tone at the top” in BNPP was, frankly, not just unsupportive of compliance, but against it. And, the company put its profit margins ahead of its business ethics.”

“There is, of course, no “off the rack” compliance program that can be installed at every company. Effective compliance programs must be tailored to the unique needs and risks faced by each company.”

“But there are hallmarks of good compliance programs. The department includes many of these in our non-prosecution agreements and deferred prosecution agreements, and I’d like to discuss them with you”. The full speech provides factors or “hallmarks” of good compliance which are used to assess civil vs. criminal courses of action on the part of the DOJ.

For the full remarks, here is the official link: http://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/remarks-assistant-attorney-general-criminal-division-leslie-r-caldwell-22nd-annual-ethics.

 

 

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