On February 8, 2017, the Criminal Division of the U.S.
Department of Justice quietly issued new guidance on corporate
compliance programs for companies implicated in misconduct.
Specifically, the Criminal Division posted a set of "important
topics and sample questions that the Fraud Section has frequently
found relevant in evaluating a corporate compliance program"
to the Strategy, Policy, and Training Unit page of the Criminal
Division's website.1 The DOJ document can be
accessed here: Evaluation of Corporate Compliance
Programs. The Criminal Division had previously announced
that the DOJ would be publicizing a list of sample questions to
give companies a better idea of the types of issues that federal
investigators may be concerned about in evaluating corporate
compliance programs more than a year ago, in February 2016, and
this appears to be the result of those efforts. The Criminal
Division seems to have issued this new guidance without issuing a
press release or
