White Collar Investigations: Expert Defense for Your Corporate Risk

Allegations of corporate fraud, bribery, and financial misconduct most frequently arise from whistleblowers who report misconduct to the SEC's Office of the Whistleblower or the DOJ's False Claims Act program, or from government investigators who identify suspicious transactions during regulatory examinations. The most significant categories include securities fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, accounting fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, tax crimes, money laundering, and embezzlement.

Corporate fraud and foreign corrupt practices act (FCPA) counsel can advise on the specific fraud, corruption, and financial misconduct allegation risks and develop the corporate fraud defense and FCPA compliance strategy.

Government investigations of white collar conduct are initiated by a wide range of federal agencies, including the DOJ and its component United States Attorney's Offices, the SEC's Division of Enforcement, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and specialized task forces that investigate complex financial crimes. A company that receives a subpoena from any government agency or a notification that it is a target of a grand jury investigation must treat the matter as requiring the immediate attention of experienced legal counsel.

Corporate crime and bribery defense lawyer counsel can advise on the specific white collar investigation legal framework and develop the corporate crime defense and government enforcement response strategy.

SEC enforcement and SEC investigations counsel can advise on the specific regulatory inquiry and government agency investigation risks and develop the SEC enforcement response and regulatory investigation defense strategy.

Evidence that is improperly handled during a white collar investigation can convert a civil or regulatory matter into a criminal prosecution, and a company or individual who destroys documents, alters records, or encourages witnesses to provide false or misleading information faces obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges. A company that fails to issue a litigation hold notice and preserve all relevant documents upon learning of a government investigation risks court-imposed sanctions and criminal prosecution for spoliation of evidence.

Evidence preservation and financial reporting investigations counsel can advise on the specific evidence collection and document review risks and develop the evidence preservation and document review compliance strategy.

A company or individual under investigation by the DOJ or the SEC faces potential legal consequences that include reputational harm, loss of licenses and government contracts, debarment from regulated industries, and collateral civil litigation from shareholders and business partners who suffered harm as a result of the conduct under investigation. The DOJ's sentencing guidelines create significant financial exposure for companies found to have engaged in systematic misconduct, with potential criminal fines reaching up to twice the amount of any gain or loss associated with the offense.

Federal criminal defense and financial crime counsel can advise on the specific criminal charge and regulatory penalty risks and develop the federal criminal defense and regulatory penalty avoidance strategy.

A company that discovers potential misconduct or learns that it may be the subject of a government investigation should immediately retain experienced outside legal counsel and launch an independent internal investigation before the government's inquiry escalates into a formal subpoena or search warrant. The internal investigation should be structured to protect the company's attorney-client privilege by ensuring that investigative communications flow through outside counsel and that employee interviews are conducted by counsel with appropriate privilege warnings.

Compliance audit and corporate compliance and risk management counsel can advise on the specific internal review and evidence preservation requirements and develop the internal investigation and evidence preservation strategy.

A company that receives a government subpoena, a civil investigative demand from the DOJ, or a formal order of investigation from the SEC must respond promptly and accurately, because a failure to comply with government compulsory process can itself constitute a criminal offense, and incomplete or inaccurate productions can expose the company to additional charges of obstruction. The company's legal counsel must carefully review the scope of the subpoena or demand to identify any applicable legal objections and assess whether any responsive documents are protected by attorney-client privilege or work product protection.

DOJ seizure and whistleblower counsel can advise on the specific government request and subpoena response requirements and develop the DOJ response and government subpoena management strategy.

Experienced legal counsel can significantly improve a company's outcome in a white collar investigation by managing the company's communications with government investigators in a manner that is cooperative without unnecessarily expanding the scope of the government's inquiry, presenting the company's factual and legal defenses through proffer sessions and written submissions, and negotiating the terms of any resolution that avoids criminal conviction in favor of a deferred prosecution agreement, a non-prosecution agreement, or a civil consent decree.

Federal and state fraud defense and consent decrees counsel can advise on the specific regulator communication management requirements and develop the regulatory communication and enforcement negotiation strategy.

The most powerful tools available to a company seeking to minimize its criminal and financial exposure are voluntary self-disclosure, cooperation with the government's investigation, and timely remediation of the conduct that gave rise to the investigation, and the DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy and the SEC's cooperation program both provide meaningful credit to companies that come forward before the government identifies them independently. Individual executives who are subjects of a white collar investigation should retain their own separate legal counsel, because the interests of the company and the individual may diverge as the investigation progresses.

Financial fraud and money laundering counsel can advise on the specific criminal and financial exposure reduction requirements and develop the pre-indictment defense and financial exposure minimization strategy.