FCPA: DOJ May Be Listening, But It Is Not Changing Its Approach

As we wrote in our November 19, 2010 FCPA Client Alert, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Criminal Division, Department of Justice, recently acknowledged that "some practitioners and others would like to see, in the FCPA area, an amnesty program similar to the one that exists in the realm of antitrust."¹ In a hotel ballroom filled with FCPA defense attorneys and in-house counsel, Mr. Breuer stated that "we listen to considered suggestions of this kind." But on November 30, 2010, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Greg Andres rejected the possibility of an amnesty program for FCPA cases.

Although seemingly inconsistent with Mr. Breuer's suggestion that DOJ was willing to consider an amnesty program, Mr. Andres's remarks at the Senate Hearing reinforced Mr. Breuer's basic theme: the DOJ's aggressive enforcement of the FCPA is here to stay irrespective of extensive criticism.