Meanwhile … At The FCPA’s “Dog And Pony Show”
The FCPA “dog and pony” show took place last week.
This year it was Chief Counselor Brent Wible who delivered the DOJ speech.
Topics addressed included looking “back at [the DOJ’s] achievements [in 2024] in the fight against foreign bribery; holding culpable individuals accountable; securing impactful corporate resolutions; and advancing the department’s corporate enforcement priorities and policies.”
Wible stated:
Another Day, Another DOJ Speech
It is September which means enforcement agency officials hit the “conference circuit” to give scripted speeches.
Last week it was DOJ Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri delivering a speech to a corporate compliance audience in New York (see here for the prior post), yesterday it was Argentieri delivering a speech to a corporate compliance event in Texas.
Argentieri began:
Assistant AG Polite Says Do Not “Fall Victim To Recency Bias” And Serves Up A Word Salad
Another week, another speech by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite.
In the speech, Polite told an audience of white collar criminal professionals not to” fall victim to recency bias” (even though of course the DOJ facilitates it) and served up a word salad of ambiguous terms and concepts.
I have been reading speeches by DOJ enforcement officials for approximately 15 years and Polite’s speech is one of the worst I have encountered as it is mostly just a play on words.
The Big Picture Regarding The DOJ’s Revised Evaluation Of Corporate Compliance Programs Guidance Document
This prior post highlighted the recent revisions to the DOJ’s “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (ECCP) guidance document. This post provides the big picture.
For starters, there is nothing per se “wrong” with the ECCP or its revisions. In fact, the ECCP is a nicely written and organized document. Substantively however, the revised ECCP uses the word “effective” or “effectively” 54 times (the original version used the word “effective” or “effectively” 51 times). However, there is no legal requirement that business organizations have “effective” compliance programs. Moreover, the revised ECCP (just like the original ECCP) is little more than a document full of questions. (Precisely, the revised ECCP contains 168 questions whereas the original ECCP contained 151 questions).
Big picture, the revised ECCP uses the word “effective” or “effectively” 3 more times than the original ECCP and the revised ECCP has 17 more questions than the original ECCP.
DOJ Revises Its “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” Guidance Document
Prior posts here and here discussed the DOJ’s “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (ECCP) guidance document released in Spring 2019.
Recently, the DOJ released an updated version. While the ECCP is not Foreign Corrupt Practices Act specific, it is FCPA relevant and set forth below are the most meaningful changes to the ECCP.