DOJ Fraud Division Signals Aggressive Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities
The National Fraud Enforcement Division has confirmed charging-decision factors for corporate fraud against US taxpayers, a signal for defense-side and internal-investigations planning.
Per a Latham & Watkins client alert carried on JD Supra, DOJ's National Fraud Enforcement Division has confirmed its enforcement priorities targeting corporate fraud against US taxpayers and set out specific factors it will weigh in charging decisions. The reporting characterizes the posture as "aggressive," but the alert available here does not enumerate the individual factors, so counsel should treat the specifics as unverified pending the agency's own announcement and any accompanying documents.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: charging-decision criteria are effectively a published playbook. When an agency signals how it will select cases, it narrows the discretion that previously allowed defense counsel to probe charging selection at the pre-indictment stage, and it gives prosecutors internal cover for cases that might otherwise look opportunistic. For in-house counsel, the same signal raises the near-term probability that parallel civil and criminal referrals, and coordinated SEC or other agency actions, will follow a corporate theory the division has already decided it wants to bring.
Practical next steps: map current and pending US-taxpayer-facing matters against the announced factors; revisit declination, disclosure, and cooperation postures; and refresh internal escalation and investigation protocols for the categories most likely to be prioritized. Watch for the full DOJ text, any authorized-representative or pilot-program terms, and early charges applying the stated criteria.