Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Thank you for that kind introduction. It is a pleasure to be here with you today.
As you all know, this conference is the flagship event in the world of FCPA enforcement. Leaders from the defense bar, the in-house community, the SEC, the State Department, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and more gather here to discuss the latest developments and trends in this space.
ACI’s FCPA conference is always at the end of the year, which lends itself to looking back. With my time today, I am honored to be able to look back at our achievements this year in the fight against foreign bribery: holding culpable individuals accountable; securing impactful corporate resolutions; and advancing the department’s corporate enforcement priorities and policies.
But first, in the spirit of lookbacks, I’d like to start by reflecting on my own time in the Criminal Division and the strides we’ve made in combatting all forms of white collar crime.
I have had the pleasure of serving in the Criminal Division for the past four and a half years: first in the Fraud Section, then as Chief of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and for the last year and a half, leading the division from the front office. I have to admit, when I started out in the department as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York many years ago, I didn’t think too much about the Criminal Division, and I didn’t really know what the whole “Main Justice” thing was about.
But after my first stint in the Fraud Section, and especially over the past few years, I fully appreciate the unique role the Criminal Division plays in the department’s efforts to combat white collar crime. In close partnership with U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country as well as our law enforcement partners, the Criminal Division brings its expertise, resources, and innovation to bear in pursuing many of the most high-impact white collar cases in the department. Looking back over the last few years, I’d like to highlight some of the Criminal Division’s accomplishments I am most proud of.
Let me start with expertise. Simply put, we are the department’s foremost experts in corporate enforcement, compliance, and policy. Our prosecutors build cases that unravel the most complex corporate corruption and fraud schemes that reach across the globe.
Some of the results the FCPA Unit achieved over the last year exemplify this expertise. Investigating and prosecuting corporate crime, including resolving multijurisdictional resolutions, requires not only tenacious factfinding and the use of the full suite of law enforcement tools, but also significant expertise in this area of the law and the legal issues that can arise in corporate investigations. If you consider the scope of our prosecutions of multiple commodities trading companies and related individuals over the last few years, you will see this expertise in action.
We are also showing off our chops in another area when it comes to FCPA enforcement: trial readiness.
FCPA trials pose significant challenges. Witnesses and evidence are frequently located abroad. The record is often massive and complex. Tricky legal issues abound. We go up against the best of the best. And our prosecutors have the added hurdle of being the away team when they try these complex cases — they are almost always far from home and their offices. In the face of these challenges, our prosecutors have excelled.
In addition to our other work across the division, since 2022, the FCPA Unit has secured trial convictions against seven individuals in foreign bribery cases. This includes trials against high-level corporate executives, such as Roger Ng, a former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs. I was a member of that trial team, along with colleagues from the Criminal Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. It also includes trial convictions of senior foreign officials, such as Claudia Diaz Guillen, the former National Treasurer of Venezuela, Carlos Polit, the former Comptroller General of Ecuador, and Manuel Chang, the former Finance Minister of Mozambique.
These cases illustrate the department’s commitment to individual accountability, our number one priority in this area. And I am incredibly proud of our team’s dedication, perseverance, and skill in securing these impactful convictions.
Trials like these — and our white collar enforcement work more generally — are incredibly resource-intensive. During my four and a half years, the Criminal Division has invested significant resources to tackle all facets of white collar crime.
Take our Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section’s Bank Integrity Unit, or BIU. Since 2022, we’ve grown this small but mighty unit from about a dozen prosecutors to more than 20. This talented and specialized group investigates financial institutions for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and related offenses — a critical priority for the department. Like our evergreen commitment to fighting foreign corruption, we are invested in making sure that financial institutions, which are gatekeepers to the U.S. financial system, play by the rules. And our investment has borne fruit: since 2022, the BIU has resolved some of the biggest corporate cases across the department, including guilty pleas by Danske Bank, Binance, and TD Bank, with penalties totaling over $8 billion.
I am also proud of our investments in specialized, expert units that have enhanced our procedures for addressing potentially privileged information, which is becoming more and more common across our white collar cases. In 2020, we stood up the Fraud Section’s Special Matters Unit, which now supports all three of the Fraud Section’s litigating units on a daily basis and — when called upon to do so — aids other department components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices with its expertise. This team of unsung heroes reviews reams of material to ensure that our prosecution teams are not exposed to potentially privileged documents and engages in strategic litigation to ensure our prosecution teams can efficiently advance their investigations without intruding upon privileged materials. Building off this success, when I was Chief of MLARS, we created a Privilege Review and Litigation Unit in the Section to do similar work. These two units illustrate our commitment to conducting our investigations effectively and fairly and working smarter to address areas of litigation risk.
Now, innovation.
We are continuing to advance our use of data analytics across the full range of our white-collar investigations. While we have long successfully used data analytics in health care fraud, market manipulation, and insider trading cases, we are continuing to make strides to identify misconduct and launch FCPA investigations through data analytics. We have already secured convictions in cases generated entirely in-house.
And we have active, ongoing FCPA investigations started through in-house, home-grown data analytics. We have a dedicated data scientist and robust team focused on identifying relevant data sources, both public and private, and leveraging our existing cases and sources of information to generate actionable leads. Stay tuned for more developments here.
Our use of data analytics is just one example of how we are ensuring that our FCPA pipeline remains strong. Nearly all of our recent corporate and individual prosecutions arose from the proactive work of prosecutors and law enforcement agents. Whether it’s identifying and developing a cooperating witness, obtaining evidence through referrals and evidence-sharing from foreign authorities, or building on tips obtained from whistleblowers and other sources of information, we are investigating a significant number of FCPA matters that are generated or advanced through the proactive efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners.
Take for instance the case against Carlos Polit, as well as the recent conviction of his son John, who pleaded guilty to laundering bribes received by his father. Those convictions were the direct result of years of painstaking investigative work — our prosecutors and agents turned over every rock, pulled on every thread, and used every available information source to hold these individuals accountable. We used records produced by Odebrecht, which paid over $10 million in bribes to Carlos Polit; information provided by our foreign law enforcement partners; in-depth financial analysis; and information learned through our successful prosecution of corruption in the Ecuadorean reinsurance industry, which also implicated Carlos Polit.
Through this dedication, we were able to hold accountable both a corrupt foreign official and his money launderer for serious violations of U.S. law. After a weeks-long jury trial and conviction, Polit was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $16.5 million.
This case is an example of the Criminal Division at its best, demonstrating our commitment to the rule of law and serving as a deterrent to others who might seek to profit from corruption.
What has come from all of this investment and work? Well, 2024 has been a banner year — for the FCPA Unit, in cases across the division, and in our development and implementation of corporate enforcement policy.
Let’s start with the FCPA Unit, and with a group of cases that illustrates the Unit’s across-the-board successes: our commodities trading company cases.
We started the year with a trial in the Eastern District of New York against Javier Aguilar, a former trader at Vitol Inc., the U.S. affiliate of the largest independent energy firm in the world. The FCPA and money laundering charges related to a scheme to pay over $1 million in bribes to Ecuadorean and Mexican officials. Vitol had earlier entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay over $135 million in total penalties.
In February 2024, due to the dedicated work by prosecutors in the FCPA Unit, MLARS, and EDNY, the jury held Aguilar accountable and found him guilty on all counts. And this trial success was followed shortly by Aguilar’s guilty plea to additional FCPA and Travel Act bribery charges filed in the Southern District of Texas relating to the Mexico bribery scheme.
After the trial win, we secured guilty pleas from two trading companies that had engaged in widespread bribery. In March, Gunvor and Trafigura, both based in Switzerland, each pleaded guilty to FCPA offenses and paid a total of over $700 million in global penalties for bribing Ecuadorean and Brazilian officials, respectively.
But we were not done. In October, after a four-week trial, a jury in Connecticut convicted Glenn Oztemel, a former trader with Freepoint Commodities, for paying over $1 million in bribes to officials of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company. And that was after Glenn Oztemel’s brother had pleaded guilty to money laundering for his role in the scheme.
Two trial wins, two individual guilty pleas, and two corporate guilty pleas in the span of 10 months. In total, since 2022, through its investigations of bribery schemes involving multiple commodities trading companies, the FCPA Unit, in partnership with MLARS and many U.S. Attorney’s Offices, has secured six corporate resolutions with over $1.7 billion in global penalties and convicted over 20 individuals.
That’s our prosecutors at their finest, holding accountable corporate and individual actors alike for committing widespread misconduct.
Another example is the Adani case unsealed two weeks ago, brought by prosecutors in both our Fraud Section’s FCPA Unit and Market Integrity and Major Frauds, or MIMF, Unit, in close partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. In addition to FCPA conspiracy, the indictment alleges securities fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction offenses stemming from a scheme to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials and to fraudulently secure billions of dollars in financing, including from U.S. investors. The collaboration demonstrates that we will bring all our expertise to bear and work hand in glove with our partners to ensure that we prosecute all aspects of a criminal scheme.
Our successes this year extended far beyond these cases. In fact, in nearly every category, the FCPA Unit excelled. Consider the numbers for this year so far:
- We’ve already had more FCPA corporate resolutions — six — than in any year since 2020. And we’re not done yet.
- These resolutions have resulted in the highest global monetary amounts — nearly $1.5 billion — in any year since 2020.
- We have had four successful trials against individuals — the most ever.
- We have convicted more individuals than last year.
- And we have announced charges against more individuals than last year.
That’s across-the-board robust enforcement.
But it’s not just about the numbers. As Criminal Division leaders have said time and time again, we aim to take on the most complex cases — and that means FCPA cases that span the globe and industries.
Look at the diversity of this year’s corporate cases. We have had resolutions with a China-based company (BIT Mining Ltd., formerly known as 500.com); a subsidiary of a Spanish company (Telefonica); a German company (SAP); an American company (Raytheon); and Swiss-based companies (Trafigura and Gunvor). These cases involved bribery of officials in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
It therefore should come as no surprise that we are continuing to focus on developing and strengthening relationships with our counterparts in each of these regions. At this event last year, Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri launched the International Corporate Anti-Bribery Initiative, or ICAB, consisting of four experienced prosecutors from our FCPA Unit who are focused on deepening and expanding our relationships with foreign authorities.
Building off the work the FCPA Unit has done for years, beginning in April of this year, our ICAB members have focused on strategic partners in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to both enhance cooperation and to secure leads for new cases. And I’m excited at the progress we’ve made on both fronts. We have traveled to 11 different countries to meet with counterparts and engaged with more than 20 foreign authorities about developing case leads. We have opened multiple investigations as a direct result of referrals obtained through the efforts of our ICAB team. Likewise, we have referred multiple cases to foreign prosecutors.
Our ICAB program has also helped facilitate multiple coordinated corporate resolutions with foreign authorities this year, including our first ever with Ecuador in the Gunvor matter. As I mentioned, Gunvor pleaded guilty to bribing officials of Ecuador’s state-owned oil company to obtain contracts that yielded more than $287 million in ill-gotten gains. As part of the resolution, we agreed to credit up to 25 percent of the criminal penalty against payments to authorities in Ecuador (as well as Switzerland). And Gunvor has since resolved with the State Attorney General’s Office in Ecuador, agreeing to pay over $90 million.
With this coordinated resolution, our list of foreign partners continues to grow. Like South Africa and Colombia, we can now count Ecuador as a country with which the department is coordinating foreign bribery cases.
Though this is the FCPA conference of the year, I have to brag a little about the Criminal Division’s other successes this year.
Across the Fraud Section, from January to November 2024, we convicted 232 defendants, including 38 defendants across 36 trials; and charged 212 defendants. The average fraud loss per defendant in these cases was the most ever — almost $35 million per defendant — topping the prior record of $28 million per defendant. And we have continued to focus on prosecuting gatekeepers. To date this year, we have charged 68 executives, lawyers, and medical professionals.
And across the Criminal Division, we have announced 10 corporate resolutions — including four guilty pleas — and two CEP declinations to date this year. As I mentioned, MLARS’s BIU brought the historic TD Bank case earlier this year, and has nearly doubled the number of individuals charged over last year. The Fraud Section’s MIMF Unit secured three corporate resolutions across a range of fraud offenses: TD Securities (for defrauding treasury markets); Austal USA (for accounting fraud and obstruction); and, in coordination with the FCPA case, Raytheon (for defective pricing). And the Health Care Fraud Unit remains focused on advancing corporate cases.
Companies should recognize that their risk profiles span far beyond foreign corruption cases.
That brings me to the final area of success in 2024 that I would like to address — our development, advancement, and implementation of corporate enforcement policy.
You all know the policies and have parsed every word.
But it is worth taking stock of just how much we have accomplished this year.
Over the last year or so, we’ve updated the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, or ECCP, to more directly address compliance programs’ access to data, internal reporting and whether companies promote a “speak up” culture, how compensation systems promote compliance, and the risk posed by emerging technologies. The ECCP also now emphasizes that companies should be learning lessons from both their own prior misconduct and from issues at other companies to update their compliance programs and train employees.
We’ve also continued to refine our Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, or CEP. Just two weeks ago, we announced revisions to our CEP to account for good faith self-reports that do not constitute voluntary self-disclosures under our policy. Consistent with our practice, we have now made explicit that our prosecutors will consider a company’s good faith self-report in determining the appropriate resolution, including the form, the monetary penalty, and the length of the term of the agreement. This is yet another example of the Criminal Division continuously innovating, seeing what’s working and what’s not, and engaging with you all to maximize our efforts.
Take the case of Albemarle, which voluntarily, but belatedly, self-reported foreign bribery misconduct. Even before the CEP revision, we accounted for this disclosure, as well as the company’s substantial cooperation and extensive and timely remediation, and entered into a non-prosecution agreement and afforded a 45% fine reduction, the highest reduction we have given.
I expect you will see this scenario occur again in the near future — even if a company does not meet the standards for voluntary self-disclosure credit under the CEP, we will recognize their good faith self-report in the form of the resolution, the amount of cooperation and remediation credit, and the length of the term.
And our prosecutors are evaluating active corporate resolution agreements to determine whether corporate defendants who resolved with the Criminal Division in recent years could be eligible for early termination based on the recent revisions to the CEP.
Keep an eye out for further developments here.
We have also focused on accounting for all of a company’s criminal conduct — whether the company is a recidivist or is resolving more than one case around the same time — by determining the appropriate starting point in the Sentencing Guidelines range before applying credit for cooperation and remediation. As our CEP makes clear, such reductions will generally be from the bottom of the range, except in the case of a criminal recidivist.
We are taking this same approach where companies are resolving two separate federal criminal investigations concurrently or close in time. While not recidivism, depending on the facts and circumstances, this scenario can be indicative of a broader failure in a company’s culture, compliance program, or senior management’s ability to ensure a company does the right thing. In the Raytheon case, for instance, where the company simultaneously resolved FCPA and fraud investigations, we started the penalty calculation above the bottom of the Guidelines range, before applying cooperation and remediation credit. I expect you will see this occur again shortly.
In keeping with our commitment to transparency, we also recently marked the halfway point of our Pilot Program on Compensation Incentives and Clawbacks by publishing an assessment of the results to date. I expect you will see more reports like this going forward.
This isn’t all. In August, we launched the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to fill gaps in existing whistleblower programs and encourage individuals to come forward with information. To date, we’ve received approximately 250 unique submissions. About 60 of these are under close review by our expert team. I’m especially excited that we’ve seen reports about potential FCPA violations in non-issuer cases, a gap in other agencies’ whistleblower programs that we have filled. We are also seeing tips related to corruption in matters where we are already open, and these tips are adding to the information we have from other sources. This should make clear that effective internal reporting structures and whistleblower programs are critical for all companies, not just issuers.
We’re excited about where these investigations will lead and are looking forward to continuing them in partnership with U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country.
To complement our whistleblower program, we also announced a revision to our CEP to incentivize companies to invest in strong internal reporting structures and to report misconduct to the government. The CEP now provides that when a company receives an internal report from a whistleblower, if the company comes forward and reports the misconduct to us within 120 days, and before we reach out to the company, the company will be eligible for the greatest benefit under our policy — a presumption of a declination — so long as they fully cooperate and remediate. Companies are eligible for this benefit even if the whistleblower comes to the department first. And we are already seeing companies take advantage of this provision and coming forward within the 120-day window.
This follows on the heels of the division’s Individual Voluntary Self-Disclosure Program, that creates incentives for culpable individuals to come forward and disclose original information about certain types of corporate crime in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement.
Like our enforcement this year, I can confidently say that our policies are working. We’ve seen steady increases in the number of self-reports since 2021 and are on track for another year-over-year increase in 2024. We’ve seen these reports across a range of types of crimes. And we’re excited where these will lead us. In the last two years, we have announced CEP declinations not only in FCPA cases, but also in cases brought by our MIMF Unit and the first ever with our Health Care Fraud Unit.
There have been a lot of policy developments this year. Each of them is a step along the path to the Department’s goal of vigorous white collar enforcement coupled with transparency about our approach to enforcement. Our policies reinforce each other to incentivize companies to invest — now — in effective compliance programs. To encourage companies and individuals alike to step forward and report misconduct. And to help combat corruption, root out misconduct, protect investors, and safeguard the public fisc.
But make no mistake about it — we are not waiting by the phone for companies to self-report. We have the know-how, resources, and determination to come calling on our own. Our career prosecutors are diligently working their investigations — they will follow every lead, here and abroad, and doggedly pursue the department’s mission to uphold the rule of law and hold wrongdoers to account.
This recap of the Criminal Division’s work brings me back to where I started — reflection. Reflection on the Criminal Division — which I have called home for the past four and a half years — our accomplishments, and our people.
I am amazed by all of the work performed by our dedicated public servants day in and day out on behalf of the American public. The Department of Justice is lucky to be filled with such conscientious, ethical, and decent prosecutors, agents, and support staff, who do the job the right way, for the right reasons, every single day.
Thank you for your time.
This crime news article "Chief Counselor Brent Wible Delivers Keynote Speech at the American Conference Institute’s International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" was originally found on https://www.justice.gov/usao/pressreleases