Insights

Washington – February 27, 2023: Global Investigations Review has named Crowell & Moring’s Investigations and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement groups to its prestigious GIR 100 list, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices. Based on extensive research, GIR selects 100 firms from around the world that it deems most able to handle sophisticated cross-border government-led and internal investigations. This is the eighth consecutive year that Crowell & Moring has made the list.

On Monday, September 23, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ), released an update to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP) guidance.  The ECCP guidance was last revised in March 2023, which brought a number of significant changes, including a focus on compensation and incentive structures (e.g., clawbacks), and third party messaging applications.  This 2024 update, while not as significant in scope as its predecessor, nonetheless highlights the DOJ’s focus on new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), as part of its evolving assessment of what makes a corporate compliance program truly effective, and how prosecutors should evaluate risk assessments and other management tools at the time of a corporate resolution.

On June 26, 2024, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of federal bribery law by ruling that 18 U.S.C. § 666 does not cover gratuities provided to officials for past acts. The Court held that Section 666, which outlaws bribery of state and local officials when federal funds are involved, does not extend to “gratuities” that follow an official act, in large part because regulation of such gifts is a matter of state and local law.

On February 14, 2024, U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco (“DAG”), the second in command at the U.S. Department of Justice, announced to an audience at Oxford University a key development in how the DOJ and its prosecutors plan to address the dangers posed by AI technology. DAG Monaco likened the use of AI in the commission of a crime to the use of a weapon, calling it a “sword,” and characterizing its misuse as “dangerous.” She stated, “Like a firearm, AI can also enhance the danger of a crime.”