Webinar June 9, 2015 12 Noon EST Sign Up Here Hospitals and other healthcare providers face extraordinary risks in the marketplace. The Justice Department has ramped up False Claims Act cases, and now has promised to increase criminal prosecutions for healthcare fraud. The implications of this new initiative are significant, and require all healthcare organizations to reexamine and enhance their ethics and compliance programs. Join...

The government is on a public relation campaign. Department of Justice and SEC officials have been making the rounds and giving important speeches on criminal prosecutions, cooperation and voluntary disclosure and ethics and compliance program expectations. In a recent speech (here), Criminal Division AAG Leslie Caldwell outlined a number of important issues relating to DOJ expectations of company ethics and compliance programs. DOJ has promoted...

You can add this blog posting to my tagged category – “profound grasps of the obvious.”  If you are brave and willing to succumb to yet another in this series, please read on. Much has been written about how to conduct an internal investigation. Not as much has been written about the steps leading to an internal investigation. There can be very difficult judgment calls...

DOJ has developed a new and innovative model for criminal prosecution of corporations. The jury is still out on whether this model is the best use of public resources. DOJ frequently touts its successes based on criminal fines collected, numbers of companies investigated, and improvements in the governance of corporations. DOJ is proud of its program, and rightfully so. DOJ has set in a motion...

In my continuing series on corporate criminal prosecutions, an important assumption for many DOJ policies and corporate counsel representation is that a company cannot survive a criminal conviction. That assumption and policy is being whittled away and I expect will continue to be modified. We are witnessing the development of a new willingness to require corporate guilty pleas and an increased number of challenges to...

The old maxim – “Justice delayed is justice denied” – is a powerful statement relating to our criminal justice system. A subject of a criminal investigation – corporate or individual — undergoes enormous stress from a continuing investigation. Our system is built on the idea that investigations and prosecutions cannot continue forever. The Constitution includes a Speedy Trial provision as part of our Due Process...

The Justice Department continues to be dogged by questions surrounding its conduct of criminal investigations. These concerns are being raised in the context of extreme cynicism given DOJ’s “failure” to prosecute individuals from the financial crisis last decade. Whether it is accurate or not, the public and many politicians view DOJ’s lack of aggressive prosecutions as a significant failure. I am not going to address...

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has been flexing its muscles lately to remind everyone of its important role in money laundering enforcement. Jennifer Shasky, the current Director, a former prosecutor from the Department, knows how to get things done and she is certainly pushing a number of buttons. In a recent speech, Shasky warned companies about illegal money laundering schemes involving real estate....

We all know our favorite things and people who fit together well – milk and cookies, peanut butter and jelly, chips and salsa, Tracy and Hepburn, Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, and many other great combinations. In the corporate compliance world, chief compliance officers and internal auditors are natural allies. They often report to the same board committee, share a common perspective on corporate...

Chief Compliance Officers carry a lot of weight on their shoulders. Some days, I am sure, they have trouble getting up and soldiering on to tackle the next challenge. As I always quip, no one congratulates the CCO on a job well done – instead, when something goes wrong, everyone looks to the CCO and asks, “What happened?” Like every leader, CCOs are charged with...