DOJ's New FCPA Enforcement Policy Reshapes Corporate Self-Disclosure Calculus
Multinational compliance officers must recalibrate self-disclosure strategies after DOJ's March 2026 Corporate Enforcement Policy introduced a three-tier framework with concrete declination and penalty-reduction benefits.
DOJ's March 2026 Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy creates three outcomes: full declinations for prompt self-disclosure plus cooperation and remediation (still requiring disgorgement); reduced-penalty resolutions for 'near miss' cases offering NPAs under three years, no monitor, and 50-75% Sentencing Guidelines reductions; and discretionary credit for non-self-disclosing cooperators. The Balt SAS declination—$1.2 million disgorgement, no prosecution—signals the policy's practical floor. Simultaneously, DOJ is dismissing high-profile matters like the Adani prosecution, citing the Blanche Memorandum's narrower bases for FCPA charges, while continuing individual trials (Hobson conviction, Wilson and Cigarroa guilty pleas). The SEC has stayed quiet on FCPA. Abroad, the UK SFO inked its first DPA in years and the EU adopted a new Anti-Corruption Directive, while China tightened commercial bribery enforcement. Companies should reassess disclosure timing, remediation documentation, and parallel-resolution coordination now that the tiered benefits are operational.