Commercial Litigation Update

In Part One of this series, we discussed the May 12, 2025, U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s new guidance memo on white-collar enforcement priorities in the Trump 2.0 Administration entitled “Focus, Fairness, and Efficiency in the Fight Against White-Collar Crime.” In this new DOJ memo, and in an accompanying speech by Matthew R. Galeotti, the Trump Administration’s appointed Head of the Criminal Division, the DOJ announced its priorities and areas of focus for white collar enforcement.

In Part Two of this series, we address the DOJ’s changes made the same day to its Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Disclosure Policy (“the CEP”), contained within the Justice Manual. The revised CEP provides additional benefits to companies that self-disclose and cooperate. In his May 12^th speech, Galeotti asserted that prior versions of the CEP were “unwieldy and hard to navigate” and noted that the DOJ seeks to be “as transparent as [it] can to companies and their counsel about what to expect under [DOJ’s] policies.” As part of this effort to increase transparency, the revised CEP includes a flowchart of potential outcomes should a company decide to make a voluntary self-disclosure as well as definitions of key terms such as “Voluntary Self-Disclosure,” “Full Cooperation,” “Timely and Appropriate Remediation” and “Providing Cooperation Credit.”

On May 12, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division released a new guidance memo on white-collar enforcement priorities in the Trump Administration entitled “Focus, Fairness, and Efficiency in the Fight Against White-Collar Crime.” In this memo, and the accompanying speech by Matthew R. Galeotti, the Trump  Administration’s appointed Head of the Criminal Division, the DOJ reiterated its previously stated commitment to prosecuting illegal immigration, drug cartels, and transnational criminal organizations. For the first time in the new Administration, however, the DOJ clearly articulated new white-collar enforcement priorities, directing Criminal Division white-collar prosecutors to follow three core tenets: focus, fairness, and efficiency. As detailed below, the new memo sets forth the following three priorities:

1. Focus on High-Impact Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Harming Vulnerable Taxpayers

It should be no surprise that the administration is targeting actors that profit through “waste, fraud, and abuse.” The memo sets clear priorities for its prosecutors to investigate, listing as the #1 priority health care fraud and federal program and procurement fraud.  The memo goes on to provide a top 10 list of “high-impact areas”, with “trade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion” as #2.  Heavy focus is given to fraud perpetrated by foreign actors and conduct threatening U.S. national security. Also listed is fraud victimizing U.S. investors, including elder fraud and Ponzi schemes. Appearing as #8 on the list is violations of the Controlled Substances Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, including the creation of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and the “unlawful distribution of opioids by medical professionals and companies.”

On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) launched the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (“Pilot Program”), a three-year initiative managed by the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.

This is the culmination of the DOJ’s “policy sprint,” announced back on March 7, 2024 by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, intended to incentivize companies to invest in a culture of compliance. While announcing the Pilot Program on August 1st, Monaco stated that this Pilot Program is intended to work with DOJ’s corporate voluntary self-disclosure programs to “create a multiplier effect that encourages both companies and individuals to tell [DOJ] what they know – and to tell [DOJ] as soon as they know it.”

Since October 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been implementing a variety of changes to its corporate criminal enforcement policies. These efforts all reflect DOJ’s focus on individual accountability, punishing recidivist misconduct, prioritizing compliance and responsible corporate citizenship, promoting corporate self-disclosure, and incentivizing whistleblowers to come forward. The latest development in these efforts is the Criminal Division’s Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosures for Individuals that DOJ released on April 15, 2024.