MARCH 12, 2024. On March 8, Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco spoke at the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime, where she discussed the efforts of the Department of Justice to combat misconduct and promote accountability. These efforts include the creation of a DOJ whistleblower program to fill in gaps in the government’s current network of whistleblower programs.
Monaco stressed the importance of holding wrongdoers accountable, whether they are corporations or individuals. Monaco added that corporations rely on the actions of individuals, so the DOJ’s main priority will continue to be prosecuting those individuals to ensure comprehensive accountability. In her speech, Monaco stated, “Accountability promotes fairness, drives deterrence, and fosters respect for the rule of law. At its best, it should also encourage investments in building a culture of compliance. That way, we’re not simply bringing cases — we’re also building an enforcement framework that promotes good corporate citizenship.” The people within corporations must adhere to that culture to safeguard the ethics of their corporations.
Monaco guaranteed steep punishments for those who break the rules, with the promise of steeper sanctions for repeat offenders. She admonished those who see penalties as a mere business expense, and if “a company breaks the law again — and it’s clear the message wasn’t received — we need to ratchet up the sanctions.” To avoid such outcomes, Monaco encouraged companies and its employees to invest in compliance programs, discussing the incentives from the DOJ to do so. The DOJ’s clawback program is an example of this, “providing a dollar-for-dollar credit to companies that claw back or withhold compensation from culpable employees. It ensures that the actual wrongdoers are actually paying for their misconduct.”
Monaco also stated that while a company can cooperate perfectly with the DOJ, what will lead to the most favorable conclusion is a voluntary self-disclosure. Two U.S. Attorney’s Offices are currently participating in a pilot program for individual voluntary self-disclosures: “Both are offering non-prosecution agreements to certain categories of at-fault individuals who self-disclose wrongdoing and cooperate against other, more culpable targets.”
The most important section of the Deputy Attorney General’s speech involves a brand-new DOJ program for whistleblowers. The SEC and CFTC whistleblower programs are massively successful, recovering billions of dollars. These, and other similar programs at the IRS and FinCEN, while a powerful tool in stopping fraudulent behavior, are limited in scope as they only cover conduct within their jurisdictions, Monaco highlighted. The DOJ needs a program that matches the full range of misconduct that they prosecute, so they are creating one. Monaco said that as a part of their new program, “if an individual helps DOJ discover significant corporate or financial misconduct — otherwise unknown to us — then the individual could qualify to receive a portion of the resulting forfeiture.” She hopes that this will create new incentives for whistleblowers to come forward to and report misconduct, and for corporations to bolster their compliance and reporting systems.
At the end of her speech, Monaco calls on whistleblowers outright: “the Department of Justice wants to hear from you.” These voices are necessary for the DOJ to do its work and ensure that those who commit fraud are held accountable.
If you would like to report government contracting fraud, healthcare fraud, cybersecurity fraud, or customs fraud, contact the whistleblower attorneys at Tycko & Zavareei LLP. Eva Gunasekera and Renée Brooker are former officials of the United States Department of Justice and prosecuted whistleblower cases under the False Claims Act. Renée served as Assistant Director at the United States Department of Justice, the office that supervises False Claims Act cases in all 94 United States District Courts. Eva was the Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud. Eva and Renée now represent whistleblowers. For a free consultation, you can contact Renée at [email protected] (tel.: 202-417-3664) or contact Eva Gunasekera at [email protected]. You can also go to Tycko & Zavareei LLP’s website for whistleblowers to learn more at www.fraudfighters.net.