2025 ACI FCPA recap: DOJ reflections and predictions

New priorities

Multiple speakers from the DOJ, including Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Todd Blanche, Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Matthew Galeotti, and Acting Chief Counselor for the Criminal Division Keith Edelman, emphasized the Department's reprioritization and emphasis on pursuing cases that affected U.S. interests – “things that matter to the American people,” as AAG Galeotti put it. This includes investigations concerning cartels and transnational criminal organizations, as well as investigations that involve harm to U.S. entities and individuals.

DAG Blanche articulated five guiding principles for the Department, particularly in the criminal enforcement space: (1) individual accountability; (2) only pursuing corporate criminal resolutions with sufficient admissible evidence; (3) rewarding corporate cooperation; (4) streamlining and expediting investigations; and (5) following a fair and orderly process for elevation of matters within the Department.

The DOJ leadership reiterated that changes made to the Department's priorities were designed to enhance efficiency and ensure that the DOJ prosecutors focused their energy on cases they could win at trial and where they had enough evidence to hold individuals accountable. But with this narrowed focus on strong cases, the DOJ officials had a stark message for companies that walk away from negotiations: they can “expect to get indicted.”

The DOJ representatives confirmed that the second half of 2025 has been marked with new leads and case generation from a variety of sources, including Voluntary Self-Disclosures (VSDs), whistleblower tips, and referrals from law enforcement agencies. According to Mr. Edleman, over 1100 submissions have been made through the Department's Criminal Division Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (the Program) since it launched in 2024, and more than 50 percent of those tips were referred to prosecutors for further investigation. The Department has received more than 100 tips since the Program was updated in May 2025 to expand coverage to various priority areas of the Administration, including violations related to trade, tariff, and customs fraud, sanctions offenses, and money laundering or narcotics. About 80 percent of the tips received since the updates were referred to prosecutors.

Monitorships

DAG Blanche described the Department's recalibrated approach with respect to monitorships. In recent months, the DOJ has undertaken an extensive review of existing monitorship arrangements and terminated some, while putting other mechanisms in place to help companies self-govern their own compliance activities. Moving forward, the Department intends to limit the imposition of monitorships to only matters where the benefits outweigh the costs. To that end, per DAG Blanche, the DOJ plans to require monitorship budgets with fee caps that cannot be exceeded without prior approval. The DOJ's goal is to walk back what DAG Blanche characterized as sprawling, expensive, and “untethered” monitorships in years past.

The future of FCPA enforcement

The DOJ officials aligned on their predictions for the future of FCPA enforcement: continued enforcement in accordance with the official internal Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the FCPA issued by DAG Blanche in June 2025 (the Blanche Memorandum), which we wrote about here. The DOJ officials insisted on several occasions that FCPA enforcement would not be based on the nationality of an organization or individual, but rather on the priority areas outlined in the Blanche Memorandum.

DAG Blanche indicted that the internal policies in the Blanche Memorandum were made publicly available to promote transparency and aid companies in their assessments, but he cautioned that the policies “are not shields for criminal conduct.” DAG Blanche made clear that complaints about DOJ's standards would “rarely carry the day.”

Looking forward, DAG Blanche previewed an expected criminal enforcement policy update in the coming weeks. He described this policy as one that will help provide certainty and transparency, regardless of the specific prosecutors involved in an investigation. The goal of the new policy will be incentivizing good corporate conduct by encouraging disclosures and cooperation, increasing accountability, and using evidence-based approaches to investigations. According to DAG Blanche this policy is designed to further the DOJ's goal to enforce matters “fairly, consistently, and transparently” in a way that protects the American people and safeguards national interests.

This new policy update, along with new Criminal Division leadership – which AAG Galeotti hinted would be announced soon – may breathe new life into the DOJ's FCPA enforcement efforts. AAG Galeotti anticipated an expedited cadence and increased volume in FCPA enforcement; he identified health care fraud enforcement as a good model for how the DOJ intends to operate the program. But the DOJ leadership also emphasized that the FCPA is just one of the corporate enforcement tools in the DOJ's toolkit. DAG Blanche reiterated the Administration's priorities regarding trade fraud and variable interest entity enforcement – a caution to companies to widen the scope of their compliance efforts.

What should companies do?

The DOJ leadership highlighted the benefits of VSD for companies and encouraged defense attorneys to review the Blanche Memorandum and the VSD Flowchart included in the revised CEP with clients. This flowchart depicts the three different “parts” of the CEP, and the potential benefits for organizations considering making a VSD. The DOJ officials emphasized that providing greater clarity to the enforcement guidelines and considerations would help companies better understand the improved incentives for making these disclosures – and the potential penalties for failure to do so.

While evaluating the strength of existing compliance programs, companies should also evaluate other growing areas of criminal enforcement, including trade fraud and potential supply chain risks that may involve touchpoints with transnational criminal organizations or cartels. Government contracts fraud was highlighted as another growing area of criminal enforcement by the DOJ officials.

Some observers outside the legal community may have interpreted the Trump Administration's FCPA enforcement pause as the end of major FCPA activity. But the DOJ's apparent dedication to continued (albeit refocused) enforcement underscores the need for companies to reengage with compliance. This may come in the form of thorough supply chain and third-party due diligence, robust internal messaging, as well as refresher anti-corruption and compliance training. We also recommend routine compliance audits to ensure organizations are well-equipped to prevent, deter, and detect any potential violations of compliance policies and procedures.

For further information or counseling regarding anti-corruption and compliance topics, please reach out to one of our global experts.

Authored by Stephanie Yonekura, Peter Spivack, Carina Tenaglia, and Cameryn Lonsway.