A Close Look at the DOJ’s New Declination-Plus-Disgorgement Settlement Approach

In late September, the DOJ publicly declined to prosecute two privately held corporations, NCH and HMT, for FCPA violations, asking only that the companies disgorge the profits from their respective bribery schemes. Each company’s counsel received a letter announcing that the Department was closing its investigation “[c]onsistent with the FCPA Pilot Program.” An “NPA-lite,” as Ryan Rohlfsen, a Fraud Section alumni and partner at Ropes and Gray, has coined the new settlement approach, carries significant benefits for companies subject to FCPA investigations. This article explores those benefits as well as the policy implications of the DOJ’s latest move. See “Going Deep on the Fraud Section’s FCPA Pilot Program” (Apr. 20, 2016); “How Will the Fraud Section’s Pilot Program Change Voluntary Self-Reporting?” (May 4, 2016); and “Earning Cooperation Credit Under the Fraud Section’s FCPA Pilot Program” (May 18, 2016).

To read the full article

Continue reading your article with an ACR subscription.