Sky Blog
Earlier this year, Judge Reed O’Connor made headlines when he rejected a plea agreement between the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Boeing. O’Connor rejected the agreement because it required the DOJ to consider its DEI policies in selecting a corporate …
On May 12, 2025, the Head of the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Criminal Division, Matthew R. Galeotti, announced significant changes to the Criminal Division’s corporate and white-collar enforcement policies and priorities.[1] Speaking at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets …
Key Points
Corporate boards and their leadership teams face unique compliance oversight challenges from the Department of Justice (“DOJ”)’s new Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (“the Program”), the details of which were announced on August 1 by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General …
On March 2 and 3, 2023, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite gave speeches announcing new and amended Department of Justice policies and guidance for prosecuting corporate crime. Both sets of remarks—which built on earlier …
I have
Good afternoon. Thank you, Dean McKenzie, for the introduction and for hosting us today. I’m happy to be back at NYU, and to see so many friends and former colleagues in the room.
Let me start by acknowledging some of
At a recent New York City Bar Association event, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco emphasized the Department of Justice’s focus on sanctions evasion and export control violations as key to its work to combat corporate crime.
At …
The Biden administration has just completed its first full year in office, and the talk has been tough. New leadership at DOJ, the SEC, the FTC, the CFTC, and other regulatory and law enforcement agencies have issued statements and policy …
Thank you, Ray, for that introduction, and thank you all for having me today. I’m sorry that I am not able to be there in person but appreciate the ability to join you virtually.
I have three priorities for my …
I think these events [the Global Investigations Review conference: New York] are an important opportunity for discussion of trends and really this area is one where your work, your advice to clients, changes the way that people behave. And it …
When we contemplate the numerous challenges regulators and prosecutors face in identifying and redressing corporate and white-collar crime, constitutional criminal procedure is not usually high on the list. If anything, the constitutional doctrines that apply to the government’s interactions with …
As we write this memorandum, a new administration is forming in Washington, with new leadership teams being nominated at DOJ, SEC, CFTC and other regulatory and law-enforcement agencies — thus prompting the question of what these changes may portend for …
During the last 15 years, a consequential U-turn occurred in federal white-collar criminal enforcement. Federal enforcement of white-collar crimes all but collapsed in the period of 2000 to 2007. In the first 11 months of 2008, the SEC prosecuted 133 …
Columbia Law Professor John C. Coffee, Jr.’s Corporate Crime and Punishment delivers a hard-hitting and provocative analysis of the securities law enforcement landscape and the choices that lie ahead. With SEC senior staff changes probable in any new administration, Coffee’s …
Accounting fraud is a worldwide problem with potentially serious consequences, but it is often detected after the damage has been done. Hence, efficient and effective methods of detecting corporate accounting fraud would offer significant value to regulators, auditors, and investors.…
For over two decades, the federal government has employed roughly the same approach to corporate crime. Prosecutors promise leniency in exchange for corporations’ commitment to improve the internal structures and systems that ensure their employees’ compliance with law. Over the …
For many years, law and economics scholars, as well as politicians and regulators, have debated whether corporate criminal enforcement deters too much beneficial corporate activity or lets corporate criminals off too easily. This debate has recently grown more polarized: On …
What is the purpose or motivation of corporate criminal punishment? What kinds of punishments ought we impose? While such questions may seem lofty, they are important nonetheless. Strict pragmatists who reject the goal of developing penal theory and focus only …