Why Are “Foreign Officials” Categorically Excluded From The DOJ’s Whistleblower Program?
This recent post highlighted the DOJ’s new Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program. (See here for 14 pages of guidance, and see here for the 4 page fact sheet).
To be eligible for an award, information provided by an individual must, among other things, “pertain” to four subject matter areas – one of which is “foreign corruption and bribery.”
The DOJ Guidance states:
DOJ Launches A Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program
On March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General (“DAG”) Lisa Monaco announced that DOJ is embarking on a “90-day sprint” to develop and implement a pilot program that will provide whistleblowers the chance to receive a monetary award in exchange for new information about “significant corporate or financial misconduct.”
The “sprint” took longer than 90 days – rather approximately 150 days – but as most runners know, longer sprint times can happen.
Earlier today, the DOJ launched a Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program. (See here, see here for 14 pages of guidance, and see here for the 4 page fact sheet).
SEC Director Of Enforcement Grewal On Cooperation
Recently Gurbir Grewal (the SEC’s Director of the Division of Enforcement) delivered this speech titled “The Five Principles of Effective Cooperation in SEC Investigations” at a securities law conference.
This post summarizes the speech and provides factual information and rebuttal points relevant to certain topics.
Grewal began as follows:
The “Yates Memo” – Nine Years Later
As highlighted in this prior post, in September 2015 then DOJ Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates delivered this speech and released this memo titled “Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing. (See here for the video of the speech). Like certain other prior DOJ policy memos, the memo took the name of the author and quickly became known as the “Yates Memo.”
The Yates Memo attracted substantial press, particularly the portion of the memo and associated speech that focused on individual liability for alleged corporate wrongdoing. (For instance, this post highlighted what others were saying about the Yates Memo).
DOJ Seemingly Says – What The Heck, Let’s Try This Next
For at least the past 20 years, the Department of Justice has wanted business organizations to voluntarily disclose possible legal violations (in the FCPA context and otherwise) to the DOJ.
The DOJ has sought to encourage this through various non-binding policy guidance full of vague and ambiguous terms and concepts that seems to change every few years (in an apparent recognition that it existing policy may not be working as well as the DOJ hoped).
Recently, the DOJ announced that it is the process of establishing a whistleblower program. (See here).