U.S. DOJ’s Corporate Fraud Enforcement Framework Takes Shape

On October 1, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED) issued a memorandum outlining its approach to corporate fraud enforcement.

Building on DOJ’s earlier announcements regarding the creation of NFED and the restructuring of DOJ’s fraud enforcement apparatus, NFED’s enforcement priorities, and DOJ’s revised Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP), the memorandum describes an enforcement strategy that punishes “serious and pervasive” corporate wrongdoing without “interfer[ing] with legitimate business operations.” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald’s memorandum sets forth several directives to ensure that NFED “advances [its] mission, provides transparency to stakeholders, appropriately incentivizes the disclosure of misconduct, rewards those who cooperate with the government, holds individuals and corporate criminals accountable, and promotes the recovery of fraudulent proceeds for the American people”: