Regulation

In May, Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, issued a department-wide memorandum setting forth the department’s enforcement priorities in the white-collar crime sphere. In it, the department announced an effort to combat crime that “poses a significant threat to U.S. interests,” including the “enabling of shadow-banking and sanctions evasions by hostile nation-states and terror regimes.” A potential obstacle to these enforcement efforts is the doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity. This doctrine, as its name suggests, has been used by courts to grant judicial immunity to foreign states, their instrumentalities, and their respective heads of state.

As regulatory shifts grow more unpredictable, corporate legal departments are stepping up their role in risk management — even as many feel they’re navigating in the dark. Their top concern? A surge in new — and often conflicting — regulations spanning everything from consumer privacy and AI governance to tax and trade.

On June 9, the DOJ released its Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, ending a months-long pause on FCPA enforcement and outlining DOJ’s go-forward criteria for evaluating whether to bring FCPA actions. Here’s a breakdown of the key themes in the guidelines.

In a show of continuity between administrations, the Biden-era Executive Order 14117 — designed to restrict foreign access to Americans’ most sensitive personal data — has been allowed to take effect in the second Trump administration.The Department of Justice’s implementing regulation for this Order, finalized in late December 2024, became enforceable in April 2025.

The DOJ announced on May 12, 2025, a strategy shift in its approach to white collar enforcement, identifying specific high-impact areas of focus; an expansion of whistleblower and self-disclosure incentives; and a narrowed use of corporate monitorships. These strategic shifts present significant opportunities for companies and individuals currently facing government investigations, particularly where those investigations no longer align with DOJ priorities.

The New Jersey Data Privacy Act (NJDPA), went into effect this past Jan. 15. The NJDPA represents New Jersey’s entry into the burgeoning field of data privacy laws, as it joins 18 other states that have passed such laws.

The first months of the Trump administration have undeniably brought change to the white collar enforcement space. On Feb. 10, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to pause all existing cases brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Since then, the administration has signaled a withdrawal. This change in climate has not gone unnoticed by defense counsel.

To gauge the level of risk and uncover potential gaps, compliance and privacy leaders should collaborate to consider how often they are monitoring third parties, what intelligence they are gathering with and about their partners and vendors, and whether their risk management practices have been diminished due to cost and resource constraints.