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DOJ, Heal Thyself

By Jim Walden and Georgia Winston
January 26, 2010

Federal prosecutors have rightly demanded that corporations invest time and money in compliance programs to combat corporate crime. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has enforced this imperative with a big stick: If an employee breaks the law while engaged in the company's business, the company's lack of an “effective compliance program” is a ground for imposing the “corporate death penalty,” as in the case of Arthur Andersen, or a range of lesser (but still severe) penalties.

But what about compliance in the business of dispensing justice? The uptick in implosions of high-profile criminal cases has been cause for concern among the DOJ's most ardent supporters. Policymakers need to ask whether the DOJ is doing as much to mitigate its own risks of employee misconduct as it requires of the companies it investigates and prosecutes.

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