The Trump Administration’s handling of antitrust enforcement issues is generally viewed as a wild-card — meaning there are issues of concern or focus that may not fit the “traditional” antitrust enforcement model. Depending on the issue and the players, DOJ’s antitrust interest may surprise various practitioners and commentators. Trump’s nomination of Gail Slater as DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division was universally praised...

In the first FCPA declination under the Trump Administration, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company paid $4.7 million in disgorgement and received a declination letter from the Department of Justice. The declination reflects consistent application of the existing Corporate Enforcement Policy.  While DOJ has issued new guidance on FCPA enforcement reflecting its revised priorities, DOJ’s declination does not reference or incorporate any ideas from the guidance.  Instead,...

DOJ’s initiation of its aggressive trade enforcement strategy is quickly unfolding — and the new strategy is a real and significant threat to all companies engaged in international trade.  We are no longer in the era of FCPA enforcement; we are entering the new world of aggressive trade enforcement which is pinned to national security issues.  Few companies have recognized this fundamental shift in DOJ’s...

What happens when a company inherits a sanctions violation through acquisition, and acts fast to fix it? Can a robust post-acquisition response really save a parent company from prosecution? In this episode, Michael Volkov unpacks the fascinating DOJ-led global enforcement action against UNICAT Catalyst Technologies – a case that reflects the U.S. government’s intensifying focus on trade enforcement across sanctions, export controls, and customs. This...

DOJ’s Unicat resolution is a perfect example of the new trade enforcement reality under the Trump Administration.  DOJ spearheaded a global resolution of sanctions, customs and export controls violations, while declining to prosecute the parent company that voluntarily disclosed the violations quickly after acquiring Catalyst. As detailed in court documents and in DOJ’s agreements with White Deer and Unicat, from approximately 2014 through 2021, Mani...

In an interesting enforcement action reflecting the Administration’s priority on sanctions, export and customs enforcement, DOJ announced a global resolution with DOJ, OFAC, BIS and CBP and Unicat Catalyst Technologies (“Unicat”), under which Unicat agreed to pay forfeiture totaling $3,325,052.10, representing the proceeds of its violations of U.S. sanctions, export control and customs laws. In parallel resolutions coordinated between the Justice Department, the OFAC and...

The Justice Department has returned to the FCPA enforcement arena — in a significant development, DOJ announced the resumption of FCPA enforcement, with a new set of enforcement guidance principles.  The new guidance is an important statement governing FCPA investigations and prosecutions. The impact of this new approach will be significant — the precise scope of this renewed focus will depend on certain legal factors,...

As if legal and compliance professionals had enough responsibilities on their plates, DOJ dropped another shoe (to join the tariffs, sanctions and export controls, and immigration issues) and upped the stakes for ethics and compliance programs. DOJ dropped a comprehensive set of new regulations governing data security and gave companies a 90-day head start — once we get to July 8, 2025, DOJ warned that...