On October 4, 2023, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco announced a new "safe harbor" policy
for voluntary self-disclosures in the context of mergers and
acquisitions, whereby the Department of Justice will decline to
prosecute companies that report criminal misconduct involving
recently-acquired businesses. This news made antitrust headlines,
and for good reason. The new policy furthers the DOJ's push for
increased voluntary self-disclosure, akin to its cartel enforcement
Leniency Program. But a second, less widely-emphasized, aspect of
Monaco's speech also seems poised to impact everyday
compliance—indeed, the very design of corporate compliance
programs—going forward.
For several years, the DOJ has sought to deter criminal conduct
by incentivizing the implementation of more effective corporate
compliance programs. In a September 2022 memorandum, the DOJ emphasized
the novel approach that, in assessing the effectiveness of a
compliance program and corporate