A company facing a potential violation of the law is often required to make a complete self-disclosure of the facts and circumstances surrounding the underlying infraction to qualify for leniency from regulators and enforcement authorities.
Discover the platform Risk solutionsOften called a voluntary disclosure, pursuant to U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) policy, an organization is required to disclose all “relevant, non-privileged facts” concerning the suspected misconduct to qualify for full cooperation credit. As Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco recently emphasized, however, mere disclosure by a company is insufficient to qualify for prosecutorial leniency.
Moving forward, the DOJ’s updated Corporate Policies emphasize the need for continuous disclosure of critical information to prosecutors as that information is discovered by an organization during the conduct of an internal investigation. The Corporate Policies emphasize that such information must be provided to prosecutors “swiftly and without delay” to enable the DOJ to hold the individuals responsible for the misconduct legally accountable. To that end, corporations that “identify significant facts [concerning potential criminal conduct] but delay their disclosure” place in “jeopardy” their eligibility for cooperation credit.
The updated Corporate Policies also place significant emphasis on the production of tangible evidence to the government as such evidence becomes available. While many organizations have become accustomed to delaying the disclosure of key evidence as a means of preserving leverage in negotiations with federal prosecutors, the new Corporate Policies effectively prohibit such practices by directing prosecutors to significantly reduce—or altogether eliminate—cooperation credit. This is especially true where the delayed production of documents or other evidence inhibits the government’s ability to initiate prosecutorial action against the individuals responsible for intentional violations.
Finally, the new Corporate Policies underscore the importance of full cooperation by requiring prosecutors to complete investigations into potentially culpable individuals prior to, or simultaneously with, the entry of any resolution against an organization. This permits the government to fully assess whether the organization has indeed cooperated with a pending federal investigation in a manner that is conducive to holding individuals accountable for their criminal deeds.
Program review
The announcement of new DOJ expectations with respect to voluntary disclosures makes it imperative for organizations to evaluate the mechanism by which internal investigations are conducted, and the manner by which key evidence is preserved and produced.
Program improvement
Too often, internal investigations are hindered by technological inefficiencies, lack of intercompany coordination, and haphazard storage of critical evidence.
GAN Integrity ameliorates inefficiencies in technology and coordination by utilizing an integrated compliance management platform that allows compliance officers to more efficiently disposition internal investigations.
By combining the functionality of a reporting mechanism with an incident management module, GAN Integrity allows the compliance function to take ownership of the investigatory process by assessing report priority in real-time and routing the most serious reports through streamlined, more critical workflows.
Significantly, every stage of the investigatory process is tracked so that the organization has a full audit trail at its disposal to demonstrate both the thoroughness and integrity of an internal inquiry.
GAN Integrity’s platform operates as a central repository for investigative information, eliminating the need to aggregate evidence from multiple sources. Documents utilized or referred to in the course of an internal investigation can be linked to the incident report.
Collectively, these processes streamline the process of document collection and organization—a process that compliance and legal teams dread the most when confronted with an evidence-intensive investigation. This allows the compliance function to more effectively conclude internal investigations and provide comprehensive reports to the company’s legal team that can be used to make timely disclosures to regulators and enforcement agencies. In short, GAN Integrity’s platform is a must-have for organizations confronted with heightened disclosure expectations.
Learn more about the importance of proper disclosure management.
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