Justice Department Officials Take a Closer Look at Corporate Repeat Offenders

Originally published on 2 December 2021. Kept as written; the law it describes may have moved since.

The Run-Down:  The Justice Department plans to harden its stance on white collar crime recidivism, stating they plan to review corporations with a history of offenses even more thoroughly than before

1. This stems from the Justice Department’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement program, which investigates corporations that may be involved in foreign bribery schemes
2. White collar defense attorneys have pushed back, citing concerns that prosecutors will look at an organization’s entire history, rather than focusing on just prior wrongdoings that are of similar conduct to what is charged
3. As of October, the Justice Department is considering making other changes to their programs

Why You Should Care:

• Corporate crime is an organizations’ worst nightmare. If the Justice Department follows through with its plan to more thoroughly review an organizations’ history of wrongdoings, corporate recidivism will become a  main priority  for the DOJ. Every wrongdoing of a similar capacity will be weighed against an organization, even if they are actively working to address such issues. This means now more than ever, your organization  must  be  diligently addressing corporate crime , in any and every facet. 
• While organizations should already be addressing misconduct on a large scale, it’s important to continuously confront unethical behavior through their daily messaging. Organizations should develop a high-level plan that can be implemented over a period of time to confront deeply embedded ethical issues. Additionally, they must go further if they want to effectively combat corporate crime, and more so, show the Justice Department they are actively working to  transform their culture . Each and every day there should be lower-level messaging that reinforces the organizations’ core values. This will not only reach employees directly but also make a statement that the organization is moving forward and leaving their past misconduct behind.