In a highly anticipated speech to the New York City Bar White Collar Crime Institute this morning, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced two new Department of Justice (“DOJ”) policies: first, a directive encouraging “coordination among Department components and other enforcement agencies when imposing multiple penalties for the same conduct,” and second, the establishment of a new Working Group on Corporate Enforcement and Accountability designed to foster consistency in DOJ outcomes surrounding white collar crime and corporate compliance.
Although Deputy A.G. Rosenstein did not discuss specifically enforcement actions involving money laundering or violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), his remarks and guidance clearly will apply to such actions, because they will apply to all corporate investigations and prosecutions. Indeed, the high-profile actions against financial institutions involving alleged AML/BSA and/or OFAC violations which we have seen over the years invariably involve numerous enforcement agencies, including but not necessarily limited to DOJ, FBI, IRS, FinCEN, the OCC, and/or state agencies — with each agency looking to assert its own particular role and agenda, sometimes to the bewilderment and detriment of the company.
This is an important development for institutions undergoing government scrutiny. I and my colleagues Hank Hockeimer, Jr. and Thomas Burke therefore discuss Deputy A.G. Rosenstein’s speech in detail here.
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