Acting Assistant Attorney General Galeotti On FCPA Enforcement
Last week Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti gave this speech stating that “white-collar enforcement remains a priority for the Criminal Division.”
Galeotti identified “a few key priority areas for the Division” including foreign corruption.
He stated:
“Following the President’s Executive Order in February, the Deputy Attorney General issued FCPA enforcement guidelines in June, which set forth non-exhaustive priority areas for the Department’s prosecutors. As the DAG announced, he led a process reviewing all such matters, and the Division will firmly — but fairly — prosecute foreign bribery cases consistent with the Guidelines.
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:
Issues To Consider From The RTX Enforcement Action
This prior post went in-depth into the recent RTX (Raytheon) FCPA enforcement action regarding bribery schemes in Qatar.
The net $361.2 FCPA enforcement action involved a net $259.7 million DOJ FCPA enforcement action and a net $101.5 million SEC FCPA enforcement action.
This post highlights additional issues to consider.
Timeline
As RTX previously disclosed:
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.
Assistant AG Polite Calls Prosecutors “Community Problem-Solvers” – Announces Yet Additional Changes To DOJ Policy
Last week, Kenneth Polite (DOJ Assistant Attorney General -Criminal Division) gave this speech in which he called prosecutors “community problem-solvers” and announced (yet additional) changes to DOJ policy.
Specifically, Polite announced “significant changes” to how the DOJ “consider[s] a corporation’s approach to the use of personal devices as well as various communications platforms and messaging applications, including those offering ephemeral messaging.”
In addition, Polite described how the DOJ has “updated its policies concerning corporate compensation systems” and issued a “revised memorandum on the selection of monitors in Criminal Division matters” including that “any submission of a monitor candidate by the company and selection of a monitor candidate by the Criminal Division should be made in keeping with the department’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”