Yesterday, new Attorney General Pam Bondi issued this memo titled “Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations.”
The memo begins as follows.
“On January 20, 2025, President Trump directed the federal government to revise existing national security and counter-narcotics strategies to pursue total elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). This policy requires a fundamental change in mindset and approach. We must do more than try to mitigate the enormous harms these groups cause in America. It is not enough to stem the tide of deadly poisons, such as fentanyl, that these groups distribute in our homeland. Rather, we must harness the resources of the Department of Justice and empower federal prosecutors throughout the country to work urgently with the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government toward the goal of eliminating these threats to U.S. sovereignty.”
The memo contains a section titled “Removing Bureaucratic Impediments to Aggressive Prosecutions” which addresses five areas of law to be “implemented for a period of 90 days and renewed or made permanent thereafter as deemed appropriate by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.”
Regarding the FCPA, the memo states:
“The Criminal Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit shall prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and TCOs, and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection. Examples of such cases include bribery of foreign officials to facilitate human smuggling and the trafficking of narcotics and firearms.
The requirements in Justice Manual § 9-4 7.110 requiring authorization by the Criminal Division for an investigation or prosecution of a case under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, as well as the requirement that such investigations and prosecutions be conducted by trial attorneys of the Fraud Section, are suspended for all matters relating to foreign bribery associated with Cartels and TCOs. U.S. Attorney’s Offices shall provide the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit with 24 hours’ advance notice of the intention to seek charges and make available to the Unit upon request any existing memoranda relating to the contemplated charges. No new or additional paperwork will be required by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit in connection with these notices and consultations.”
Time will tell of course, but I don’t see this policy change as significantly impacting corporate FCPA enforcement (the majority of which – in any given year – originate from corporate voluntary disclosure or foreign law enforcement investigations – see here).
For most of the FCPA’s history, DOJ has had a policy requiring FCPA enforcement be centralized in Main Justice because of the foreign policy implications that may arise in some FCPA matters. (See here a prior post). This policy was unique among the hundreds of laws the DOJ has authority to enforce and I see this policy change as an effort to increase efficiency of the matters identified in the memo.
