Corporate Enforcement Policy Revisions: Parsing the Policy for the Path to a Declination

Christine Wong spoke to Anti-Corruption Report about the Department of Justice (DOJ) revising its Corporate Enforcement Policy to encourage both recidivists and corporations to step forward and disclose their misdeeds, and whether corporations will begin self-disclosing more serious offenses now that there are greater incentives in place.

“It is not in DOJ’s best interest for a company to report every allegation, whether actionable or meritorious, as it is a waste of resources for the DOJ to have to pursue such matters,” Christine said. Preferably, ‘immediate’ self-disclosure will allow “for enough time to adequately investigate an allegation, rather than simply require self-disclosure the minute a company learns of an allegation.”

She added: “The decision to disclose is a very serious matter for a company. Especially without more data about how DOJ is interpreting ‘immediate’ self-disclosure or ‘extraordinary’ cooperation, and the potential for disagreement about those terms, companies may have second thoughts about whether to voluntarily self-disclose misconduct or to undertake certain types of cooperation.”

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