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.
Focus, Fairness, And Efficiency: A Closer Look At The DOJ’s “White Collar Enforcement Plan”
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice Criminal Division released various policy materials relevant to corporate enforcement.
Included in the materials was this memo to Criminal Division Personnel with a subject line “Focus, Fairness, and Efficiency in the Fight Against White-Collar Crime.”
The memo touches upon many issues long the focus of prior DOJ policy memos such as individual accountability, incentivizing voluntary disclosure and cooperation, the goal of efficient investigations, and the use of monitors.
The memo begins:
DOJ Criminal Division Announces “White-Collar Enforcement Plan”
For at least the past 20 years, the Department of Justice under all administrations has articulated various policies relevant to “white collar crime.”
The policies have all generally encouraged voluntary disclosure and cooperation with a pledge to treat business organizations that do those things less harshly than if the DOJ finds out about potential criminal activity through other ways.
The most recent example occurred yesterday in the form of this speech by Matthew Galeotti (Head of the DOJ Criminal Division) at a financial crime conference.
Galeotti began:
SEC FCPA Unit Chief – There Are “Plenty Of Situations” Where Not Disclosing “Would Be The Right Choice”
This recent article contains a few interesting quotes from SEC FCPA Unit Chief Charles Cain.
The article states: “The SEC’s enforcement division offers benefits to companies that self-report potential misconduct – usually in the form of reduced penalties and more lenient settlement conditions. Still, companies have no obligation to disclose potential violations, said Charles Cain, who leads the agency’s FCPA unit. “From my perspective, a company never has to come in and there are plenty of situations where learning about something, correcting it and moving on would be the right choice,” Cain told lawyers at a 4 November conference outside Washington, DC.”
Cain’s statement is spot-on (and consistent with voluntary disclosure observations often shared on this website) but hearing it from the head of the SEC’s FCPA Unit Chief is notable.
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: