DOJ Fraud Division Issues Corporate Enforcement Directive 26-12
A new DOJ directive under the National Fraud Enforcement Division reportedly sets expectations for corporate enforcement; details beyond the headline are not in the source snippet.
According to a Ropes & Gray client alert, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who leads the Department of Justice's recently created National Fraud Enforcement Division, issued Directive 26-12, titled "Corporate Enforcement in the Fight..." (full title not captured in the source), on October 1, 2026. The available source material consists of the alert's introduction and does not reproduce the directive's operative text, so the specific policy changes it makes — whether on cooperation credit, declination criteria, charging decisions, penalty exposure, or disclosure expectations — cannot be confirmed from this evidence.
Why it matters: a directive issued by the head of a dedicated fraud enforcement component is a durable statement of prosecutorial priorities rather than a single charging decision, and it typically informs how companies are advised to respond to subpoenas, internal investigations, and settlement negotiations during an active matter. For major-firm clients, the alert matters as an early signal to align internal investigation strategy, privilege and cooperation posture, and remediation sequencing with the division's stated expectations.
Concrete next step: obtain and read Directive 26-12 and any accompanying DOJ guidance or policy statements, and check for follow-on actions such as announced charges or declinations showing how the standard is applied in practice.