Criminal prosecutors understand the importance of cooperating witness to the criminal justice system. Cooperating witnesses are vital to the criminal justice system because they are in the unique position of explaining to a jury the operation of a criminal enterprise. Without insider information, there are numerous criminals and criminal organizations that would never have been dismantled and punished. As we have seen in the recent...
Last week, the Justice Department reported a guilty plea in the VW emissions scandal prosecution. By this one announcement, DOJ signaled that it is planning to build a bigger case against VW. Ironically, the Justice Department has exceeded the number of guilty pleas and cooperating witnesses in many of its high profile FCPA and AML/Sanctions cases. A senior VW engineer entered a guilty plea to...
Change does not occur overnight. The SEC, as much as any other government agency, has touted its hiring of former prosecutors and use of aggressive investigation tactics. I always took those statements with a grain of salt – after all, the SEC is enforcing civil laws and regulations. A prosecutor can only do so much in the civil enforcement arena. In a recent Wall Street...
