DOJ Fraud Division memo sets corporate priorities, ten charging factors
A 1 October 2026 DOJ directive tells National Fraud Enforcement Division prosecutors to place "great weight" on ten new corporate charging factors, names four fraud priorities, and creates a Corporate Enforcement Section.
On 1 October 2026, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald issued DOJ Directive 26-12, setting out the National Fraud Enforcement Division's corporate enforcement principles. The memo names four priorities — health care (including FDCA violations and controlled-substance distribution), government procurement and other government functions, "significant" revenue evasion, and trade and imports (tariff evasion, forced labor and notably "services," signalling reach into visa-program abuse). Prosecutors must still apply the Justice Manual's Filip Factors, but should "place great weight" on ten additional ones: management knowledge, obstruction, schemes lasting three years or more, harm to taxpayer-funded programs, conduct spanning three or more districts, harm to 25 or more victims or $25 million or more in loss, dollar exfiltration to foreign adversaries, and immigration offenses.
Those thresholds are low by corporate-investigation standards, so mid-size matters can trip several factors at once. A new Corporate Enforcement Section must be notified of ongoing corporate investigations within seven days and works with prosecutors from intake through resolution; the memo's emphasis on data analytics and on incentivising whistleblowers, including insiders, also departs from the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program.
Counsel should reassess the self-disclosure calculus under the 2026 Corporate Enforcement Policy, since these factors may operate as "aggravating circumstances," calibrate testing to a three-year look-back, and watch early charging decisions for how the factors are applied.