Over the past year, the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division and various U.S. attorney's offices have issued different pilot programs geared toward encouraging individuals with knowledge of certain corporate criminal misconduct to report to the government in exchange for monetary awards or nonprosecution agreements.
These programs continue the DOJ's decade-long practice of trying to promote transparency and consistency by issuing written policies and programs aimed at encouraging corporate and individual self-reporting and accountability.
This includes the Criminal Division's policy on evaluating the effectiveness of corporate compliance programs when making charging decisions, enumerated in its Ten Hallmarks of Effective Compliance Programs in 2021 and now in its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs,[1] as well as the DOJ's[2] and U.S. attorney's offices' largely uniform corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policies,[3] containing criteria companies must meet to qualify for a declination or other cooperation credit.
Through these programs, the DOJ has sought to provide concrete guidance to companies on the required steps to qualify for leniency if faced with a criminal investigation or prosecution.
However, rather than provide a uniform framework, the DOJ's new whistleblowing regime consists of a patchwork of Criminal Division and U.S. attorney's office programs that vary in benefits and qualifying criteria.
This patchwork may...
This justification was posted on the pro junta Myo Chit Myanmar (A Hmway Sein) Telegram Channel on 18 November. The channel has about 1,400 subscribers and the post has already been viewed by at l...