Attention, compliance officers: In case you missed it, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division last year quietly updated language contained in its corporate and individual model plea agreements as they apply to cooperation. In remarks made at the Global Competition Review’s Antitrust Law Leaders Forum this month, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers provided more color around those changes.
Reflecting on what the Antitrust Division expects from companies that are under investigation, Powers stressed that “cooperation and timely and voluntary disclosure of wrongdoing are among the factors that Division prosecutors consider in making corporate charging decisions under the Justice Manual, and in making sentencing recommendations under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.” To attain the benefits of cooperation, however, companies and individuals must “meaningfully assist” the Division’s investigation through “truthful, thorough, and timely cooperation,” he said.
