On September 23, the Department of Justice updated the document it uses to evaluate a corporation’s compliance program in the context of wrongdoing by the corporation – the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, or...more
In the UK, it has not historically been part of the fabric of our legal and regulatory system to pay whistleblowers who provide evidence to authorities who are investigating potential breaches of law or regulation....more
9/10/2024
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
HMRC ,
Pilot Programs ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
Historically, successful white-collar prosecutions often turn on the government’s ability to identify “insiders” with firsthand knowledge of the alleged criminal scheme, who opt to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for...more
8/7/2024
/ CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
FinCEN ,
Pilot Programs ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Self-Reporting ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
Companies beware! The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a pilot program “designed to encourage voluntary self-disclosure by individual participants in certain types of criminal conduct involving corporations.” In...more
On 24 May 2022, Glencore International AG announced a series of coordinated resolutions with various international enforcements agencies including the Department of Justice (”DOJ”), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more
6/13/2022
/ Bribery ,
CFTC ,
Conspiracies ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Forfeiture ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Government Investigations ,
Market Manipulation ,
Plea Agreements ,
Sentencing Factors ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
UK ,
UK Bribery Act ,
White Collar Crimes
On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released the publication “Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework,” (“Framework”) which described emerging threats and enforcement challenges associated with...more
For the first time since its initial publication in 2012, the DOJ and SEC released an update to their 130-page guidance manual on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). While not as highly anticipated as the first...more
In June, the U.S. Department of Justice updated its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs Guidance (“Guidance”). While the Guidance is intended to assist prosecutors by providing factors to consider in evaluating the...more
COVID-19 has presented countless challenges since it began to spread unchecked across the United States. Among those challenges are severe shortages of cleaning, medical, and food supplies....more
In a closely followed case, on February 26, 2020, a District Court Judge in Connecticut granted Lawrence Hoskins’ motion for acquittal on the seven FCPA counts on which the jury convicted him. Hoskins was a UK citizen who...more
2/28/2020
/ Acquittals ,
Agency Relationship ,
Alstom ,
Bribery ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Indictments ,
Jurisdiction ,
Money Laundering ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Subsidiaries
The Department of Justice tweaked its FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy to further incentivize corporations to make voluntary disclosures. These small changes essentially acknowledge that companies in a very early stage of an...more
In recent weeks, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published guidance in the Justice Manual at Section 4-4.112 on how it will award cooperation credit to entities and individuals that are being investigated for...more
7/29/2019
/ Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Liability ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Investigations ,
New Guidance ,
Remedial Actions ,
Subsequent Remedial Measures ,
Voluntary Disclosure Agreement
The Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it will give credit to corporations that invest in robust antitrust compliance programs in handling criminal violations of US antitrust...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a Guidance Document for its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. The Guidance Document applies directly to all of DOJ’s Criminal Division, and therefore applies to...more
When DOJ announced its FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy in 2017 (later expanded to all corporate criminal defendants), defense lawyers expressed concern about a provision buried within what it meant to provide “timely and...more
In its most recent 10-K, CHS, Inc., a global agribusiness dealing in energy, grains and food, revealed that it had self-disclosed to the Department of Justice and the SEC:
“potential violations of the FCPA in connection...more
On November 29, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced changes to the Department of Justice’s policy concerning individual accountability in corporate cases, stating that “pursuing individuals responsible for...more
On July 5, 2018, the SEC and the Department of Justice announced that Credit Suisse Group AG, has agreed to pay nearly $76 million to settle charges that its Hong Kong-based subsidiary, Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited,...more
On 9 May, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein announced a new DOJ policy that “encourages coordination among Department components and other enforcement agencies when imposing multiple penalties for the same conduct.” This...more
No matter the industry, maintaining effective corporate compliance programs has never been a more essential part of operations to address the legal risks that corporates face. This article, the third in a series about...more
5/22/2018
/ Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
France ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Sapin II ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
UK
Anti-Corruption enforcement is a top priority in France, the UK, and the US. Each of these countries has armed its enforcers with the enforcement tools necessary to investigate and prosecute corporations and individuals. Join...more
4/19/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
CJIP ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Official ,
France ,
Internal Audit Functions ,
OECD ,
Sapin II ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
UK ,
UK Bribery Act ,
White Collar Crimes
Summary: Deferred prosecution agreements have been widely used by US prosecutors since the early 2000s. Prosecutors in the UK and France only obtained this power in 2014 and 2016 respectively – but they are making up for...more
4/13/2018
/ Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Corruption ,
CJIP ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
France ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ,
UK ,
UK Bribery Act
DOJ’s Acting Head of the Criminal Division, John Cronan, announced publicly that the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, which is now part of the U.S. Attorney’s Manual and is considered formal guidance for FCPA cases, would...more
Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) again remained a high priority for the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017, resulting in 11 companies paying over $1.92 billion to...more
2/9/2018
/ Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Facilitation Payments ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
State-Owned Enterprises ,
Successor Liability
We often are asked how the U.S. government finds out about potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. Internal company whistleblowers are perhaps the main source....more