Deputy Assistant AG Monaco On …
Recently Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco delivered this speech at the American Bar Association National Institute on White Collar Crime.
Topics discussed included: “inspiring a culture of compliance,” “promoting compliance through compensation and clawback programs,” and “accountability.”
Monaco began her speech as follows:
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.”
DOJ Principal Associate Deputy AG Miller On …
Recently, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Marshall Miller gave this speech in which he talked about the DOJ’s “recent and ongoing changes to the … policies regarding corporate criminal enforcement …”.
In pertinent part, Miller discussed voluntary disclosure (a topic the DOJ has discussed for nearly 15+ years) as well as compensation clawbacks.
Compensation Clawback Crackdowns – An Emerging Enforcement Focus
This post is from Dechert attorneys Andrew Boutros, David Kelley, Anthony Kelly, Hartley M.K. West, and D. Brett Kohlhofer.
Prosecutors and regulatory officials have recently fixed their enforcement sights on corporate compensation clawbacks. Recent public remarks from leaders at the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Enforcement Division reveal how the agencies are leveraging (and intend to continue to leverage) clawbacks in carrying out their enforcement mandates. Here we examine the context behind these pronouncements, how the focus on clawbacks may affect Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and the planning opportunity these announcements present for the business community.
DOJ / SEC Announce Net $1.66 Billion (The Largest Of All-Time) FCPA Enforcement Action Against Goldman Sachs In Connection With 1MDB Fund
As highlighted in this prior post, in November 2018 the DOJ announced criminal charges against former Goldman Sachs employees Roger Ng and Tim Leissner, and Low Taek Jho (Jho Low – an individual “known to be close to various high-ranking officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi” who “worked as an intermediary in related to 1MDB and other foreign government officials on numerous financial transactions and projects involving Goldman and others) for paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s state-owned and state-controlled investment development company.
This prior post asked: what does this mean for Goldman Sachs?
We now know the answer as the DOJ and SEC announced (here and here) a net $1.66 billion FCPA enforcement action against Goldman Sachs and a related entity. This represents the largest FCPA enforcement action of all-time (see here for the prior top ten list).