Corporate Compliance Programs and U.S. Department of Justice Enforcement Policies
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) publishes guidelines for organizations operating in the U.S. upon which corporate compliance programs are measured and against which organizations should be investigated for wrongdoing. The findings discussed in this summary are based on ECI’s Corporate Compliance Program and DOJ Enforcement Policies Survey (“survey”) which was designed to obtain ethics & compliance leaders’ opinions about the DOJ’s enforcement guidelines and their intersection with corporate compliance programs. ECI surveyed chief ethics & compliance officers, chief compliance officers and chief ethics officers or their equivalents (ethics & compliance leaders). A key objective was to gather information that would help provide guidance to organizations and DOJ on actions that would improve compliance and enforcement efforts. Each section of this summary report discusses key findings on the guidance documents and other pertinent content from the survey. When reading this report, please keep in mind that the survey was conducted prior to the October 28, 2021 DOJ memorandum making revisions to the department’s existing corporate criminal enforcement policies and practices. DOJ will consider an organization’s entire criminal history, require that organizations provide information on “all persons involved in corporate misconduct,” and commit to imposing monitors where appropriate.
