This month’s indictment of two former executives of Bristol-Myers Squibb highlights the government’s increasing use of “deferred prosecution agreements,” under which companies insulate themselves from criminal liability by agreeing to assist in the prosecution of employees.
On the same day that federal prosecutors announced that they were pursuing ex-CFO Frederick Schiff and Richard Lane, who ran Bristol-Myers Squibb’s worldwide medicines group, the company itself avoided indictment by agreeing to some extraordinary steps demanded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. Those steps included:
