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Business Crimes BulletinFeaturesAdministrative LawGovernmentLitigationRegulationWhite Collar Crime

Coordination or Duplication? DOJ Adopts New Policy to Prevent 'Piling On' of Corporate Penalties

By Jonathan B. New and Victoria L. Stork
September 01, 2018

In May 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new policy to address a growing problem in white-collar criminal and civil enforcement. With increased frequency, law enforcement investigations of financial institutions and multinational corporations involve cooperation and information-sharing among governments, as well as among U.S. federal, state and local agencies. As Steven R. Peikin, co-director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Enforcement, observed in a speech in November 2017: “The level of cooperation and coordination among regulators and law enforcement worldwide is on a sharply upward trajectory.” As a result, companies have faced multiple — and often duplicative — penalties in numerous jurisdictions, particularly in the area of anticorruption enforcement.

With the adoption of its Policy on Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties (the Policy), the DOJ is seeking to discourage the unnecessary “piling on” of enforcement actions and duplicative criminal penalties on corporate wrongdoers. This nonbinding policy has been added to the U.S. Attorneys' Manual, at Section 1-12.100.

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