Department of Justice Releases First-Ever Corporate Enforcement Policy for All Criminal Cases

The Department of Justice released today the first-ever Department-wide corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, promoting uniformity, predictability, and fairness in how it pursues white-collar cases to protect the American people.

"This Department of Justice is committed to transparency and fairness, and our first-ever Department-wide corporate enforcement policy is yet another example of that," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. "This policy draws on decades of experience across the Department and creates incentives for companies to come forward and do the right thing when misconduct occurs so that we may hold accountable the individual wrongdoers. Well-intentioned businesses know that, across the Department, they will be rewarded when they self-disclose wrongdoing, cooperate with our investigations, and remediate the misconduct. But for those that do not, make no mistake - we will not hesitate to seek appropriate resolutions against companies and individuals alike that perpetrate white collar offenses that harm American interests."

"The Criminal Division has a long and storied history of corporate enforcement, and the corporate enforcement policy announced today takes the principles the Division has long promoted - disclosure, cooperation, and remediation - and applies them uniformly across the Department," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "The Division's own corporate enforcement policy traces its roots to 2016. Since that time, based on our experience prosecuting the most sophisticated white-collar schemes, we refined our approach, culminating in the revisions announced in May 2025. Having helped craft the Department-wide policy, our prosecutors will continue to reward good corporate behavior, seek individual accountability, and root out criminal conduct in our mission to protect the American people."

The Department-wide Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) provides concrete benefits to incentivize companies to voluntarily disclose discovered misconduct, cooperate with our investigations, and timely and appropriately remediate the wrongdoing. For companies that do, absent certain limited aggravating circumstances, the Department will decline to prosecute the company. Incentivizing corporate self-disclosures - while still permitting prosecutions in appropriate circumstances - allows the Department to quickly pursue culpable individuals, secure justice for victims, and deter white-collar crime, all while not unduly burdening American businesses. The CEP also provides predictability for companies and their counsel that approach these issues as it applies to all corporate criminal cases across the Department (aside from those relating to antitrust), superseding all component-specific or U.S. Attorney's Office-specific corporate enforcement policies currently in effect.