9 minute read
October.11.2022
The Department of Justice (“DOJ” or the “Department”)’s signals that it is doubling down on corporate criminal enforcement, including focusing on individual accountability, deserve close attention.
The updates, announced by DOJ Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, outlined in a Department-wide memorandum, and further expanded upon by Kenneth Polite, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, reinforce the message that companies must invest in compliance programs and incentives to support ethical behavior. The updates also reinforce the Department’s expectations that companies should promptly investigate and respond to problematic behavior.
The revisions should not come as a complete surprise. Change has been on the horizon since Monaco released a similar, less detailed memorandum in October 2021 that introduced the Department’s more unified and aggressive stance on corporate criminal enforcement. Last week’s new announcements strike a more balanced tone, maintaining the Department’s tough-on-corporate crime posture but also providing companies with guidance on how to best prevent and mitigate exposure to compliance risks and enforcement action.
The impact of the new announcements remains to be seen but the Department’s message is clear: “times have changed.”[1] Below, we preview how.
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High Level Takeaways
Collectively, the DOJ announcements address the following areas:
A more detailed discussion of these topics helps identify what is critical to plan for - now.
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The new DOJ announcements provide a road map for navigating both the ongoing and anticipated changes to the corporate criminal enforcement landscape. If you have questions or would like more information on the matters discussed here, please reach out to any of the authors.
[1] Lisa Monaco, Deputy Att’y Gen., Remarks on Corporate Criminal Enforcement 5 (Sept. 15, 2022) [hereinafter Monaco Remarks], https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-lisa-o-monaco-delivers-remarks-corporate-criminal-enforcement.
[2] DOJ Strategic Plan, Appendix B: Key Performance Indicators, https://www.justice.gov/doj/doj-strategic-plan/appendix-b-key-performance-indicators (updated Aug. 26, 2022).
[3] Memorandum from Lisa Monaco, Deputy Att’y Gen. to DOJ 3 (Sept. 15, 2022) [hereinafter Memo], https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/file/1535301/download.
[4] Monaco Remarks at 3.
[5] Memo at 3.
[6] Monaco Remarks at 3.
[7] Monaco Remarks at 5.
[8] Kenneth Polite, Ass’t Att’y Gen., Remarks on the Criminal Division 2-3 (Sept. 16, 2022) [hereinafter Polite Remarks], https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/assistant-attorney-general-kenneth-polite-delivers-remarks-university-texas-law-school.
[9] Polite Remarks at 2-3.
[10] Monaco remarks at 8.
[11] Monaco Remarks at 8.
[12] Monaco Remarks at 3.
[13] Polite Remarks at 3.
[14] Memorandum from Lisa Monaco, Deputy Att’y Gen. to DOJ (Oct. 28, 2021), https://www.justice.gov/dag/page/file/1445106/download.