Reported by James J. Fredricks, Maria Cruz Melendez, Alessio D. Evangelista, Andrew M. Good, Ryan D. Junck, Bradley A. Klein, David Meister, and Bora P. Rawcliffe

On April 15, 2024, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Criminal Division unveiled a new Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosures for Individuals that offers non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) to individuals who voluntarily disclose “original information” about certain types of crimes and who meet certain criteria. 

By incentivizing individuals in this way, the program also intends to encourage companies to implement compliance programs that will enable them to prevent, detect, remediate and report misconduct. In practice, the pilot program — if successful — is likely to become another consideration for companies when deciding whether and when to self-disclose potential misconduct. 

Offenses Covered 

The pilot program applies to a set of crimes involving corporations, mostly focusing on financial institutions and large companies (50 or more employees):  

• “Violations by financial institutions, their insiders, or agents, including schemes involving money laundering, anti-money laundering, registration of money transmitting businesses, and fraud statutes, and fraud against or compliance with financial institution regulators.”
• Offenses related to financial market integrity (a) by financial institutions, investment advisors or investment funds, (b) by or through large companies, or (c) by such entities’ insiders or agents.
• Foreign corruption and bribery by, through, or related to companies, including violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Foreign Extortion Prevention Act or money laundering statutes. 
• Bribery or kickbacks to domestic public officials by or through companies.
• Health care fraud or kickbacks committed by or through large companies.
• Fraud or deception by or through large companies against the United States related to federally funded contracting.

Self-Disclosure Requirements

• The individual must make a truthful and complete disclosure to the Criminal Division of non-public information that is not previously known to any DOJ component.
• The disclosure must be voluntary, meaning there was (a) no prior government request related to the subject matter, (b) no preexisting disclosure obligation to any federal agency, and (c) no government investigation or threat of imminent disclosure.
• The individual must cooperate fully and provide substantial assistance.
• The individual must also agree to forfeit and disgorge any profit from wrongdoing and to pay restitution or victim compensation.

Who Is Ineligible

CEOs and CFOs, domestic government officials and law enforcement employees, and foreign government officials are ineligible. Individuals are also ineligible if they were the scheme’s organizer/leader, have a previous felony conviction or a conviction involving fraud or dishonesty, or engaged in criminal conduct involving violence, force, threats, substantial patient harm, any sex offense involving fraud, force or relating to a minor, or any offense involving terrorism.  

Read full report: https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2024/04/doj-pilot-program-promises-non-prosecution-agreements