SDNY’s New Declination Policy: Crime Categories, Cooperation, and Compliance Implications

About this episode

Tom Fox and Matt Kelly discuss the implications of the SDNY's new declination policy on corporate compliance.

The award-winning Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into a compliance-related topic, literally going into the weeds to explore it more fully. Looking for some hard-hitting insights on compliance? Look no further than Compliance into the Weeds! In this episode of Compliance into the Weeds, Tom Fox and Matt Kelly look at the recently announced new Southern District of New York standard for Declinations. They look at SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton’s newly released self-disclosure/cooperation/declination policy and its implications for corporate compliance. While the core elements, prompt voluntary disclosure, cooperation, remediation, and restitution, mirror existing DOJ expectations, they highlight a significant change: SDNY now treats “aggravated circumstances” as certain categories of crimes that are categorically ineligible for declinations, including foreign corruption/FCPA, sanctions evasion, terrorism, sex trafficking with minors, smuggling, drug cartels, and forced labor, rather than focusing on offense traits such as senior management involvement or recidivism. They note potential inconsistencies with DOJ’s corporate enforcement…

People in this episode

Hosts: Tom Fox, Matt Kelly

Topics covered

• SDNY Declination Policy
• Corporate Compliance
• Self-disclosure
• Cooperation
• Aggravated Circumstances

Keywords

• DOJ
• foreign corruption
• FCPA
• sanctions evasion
• terrorism
• sex trafficking
• smuggling
• drug cartels
• forced labor

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Compliance into the Weeds, a Davey, a Communicator Award, a W3 Award

Places: SDNY, Southern District, U.S.

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