The Blanche Memo’s Take on Corporate Responsibility: Collateral Consequences and Global Norms

James Koukios spoke to Anti-Corruption Report about the new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement guidelines, including the memo’s directives for prosecutors to consider collateral consequences of investigations on investors, shareholders and innocent employees when holding a corporation responsible for the actions of its employees.

James noted that the Blanche Memo’s directive to consider collateral consequences “throughout an investigation, not only at the resolution phase,” seems to be intended as an expansion of the Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, though “it is unclear whether this means the Justice Department would actually drop an investigation because a company argued that an investigation was impacting its operations.” He added, “Every dollar that is spent on an investigation could arguably be spent elsewhere, but how does a prosecutor determine when spending on an investigation crosses the line to create a material impact on a company’s operations?”

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