On Sept. 15, 2022, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a Memorandum supplementing prior DOJ guidance on corporate criminal enforcement policies, titled Further Revisions to Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies Following Discussions with Corporate Crime Advisory Group (the Memorandum). The Memorandum came the same day Deputy AG Monaco delivered remarks on the subject and three days after Glenn Leon, the former chief compliance executive at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, started as the new chief of the DOJ Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, which investigates and prosecutes health care fraud, financial fraud, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), among other corporate crimes. Chief Leon has been lauded as well-situated to balance DOJ’s enforcement practices with his understanding of the practicalities of running a business. With this new guidance in place and new leadership at the helm, we appear to be entering a new era of corporate crime enforcement.

We now review key updates from the announcements, including the DOJ’s stated priorities to: (a) encourage corporate cooperation and self-disclosure, (b) penalize the specific individuals accountable for any violations, and (c) ensure that resolutions mirror these and other DOJ priorities. The Memorandum further requires that relevant branches within the DOJ develop various policies necessary to prioritize these initiatives, which remain to be seen. In the meantime, companies should consider the Memorandum carefully to evaluate how they can strengthen their corporate policies to reflect best practices, because the Deputy AG did not mince her words: “If any corporation still thinks criminal resolutions can be priced in as the cost of doing business, we have a message: Times have changed.”

Key Memorandum Takeaways