The judge’s department to adopt a close approach to continue corruption of companies abroad
The Ministry of Justice has closed approximately half of its surveys open to corruption by American companies abroad, but plans to initiate prosecution to focus more closely on a fault that affects the country’s ability to compete with foreign companies, officials announced on Tuesday.
President Trump signed a decree in February on break all the investigations of the department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, pending an examination of the Todd Blanche application policies, manager 2 of the ministry.
Good government groups have criticized freezing as the elimination of the railings necessary to prevent corporate abuses. This decision coincided with the closure of investigations on the Bombardier plane manufacturer and the manufacturer of medical devices Stryker, among others.
But Mr. Blanche, in a statement, said that the decision had been made to align the application of the law on the broader administration to increase the American lever effect against companies and foreign governments, by “transferring the resources of prosecution to cases which clearly imply national security and American competitiveness”.
Mr. Blanche, a former lawyer for the criminal defense of Mr. Trump, accused the Biden administration under the Attorney General Merrick B. Garland of having opened too many cases, “restraint companies” and harmful national interests.
Critics said the new guidelines were a dangerous reversal that had abandoned major surveys, including an agreement that the Ministry of Justice concluded in May with Boeing, which spared the company to take criminal responsibility for the 737 maximum accidents in 2018 and 2019. Many families of the victims vigorously opposed the agreement.
“This retirement from the application of laws against corporate crime is a perversion of justice which more concentrates the power of the administration to reward initiates and to punish the enemies perceived,” said Rick Claypool, research director of the non -profit monitoring group Citizen.
“American companies that engage in criminal corruption programs abroad will no longer be prosecuted,” he added. “This is the essential.”
The ministry plans to unload the responsibility for the survey of corrumes by American companies and persons abroad to local law enforcement and regulation, said officials.
Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Department’s criminal division, diverted criticism that the ministry was planning to greatly reduce its prosecution from all offenders, following the change of policy to the right of the Trump administration and layoffs, forced transfers and mass pensions of career producers experienced in the ministry.
The criminal division “does not have and will not close the meritorious surveys or will not reject meritorious affairs” involving foreign corruption and other white passes on Tuesday, Mr. Galeotti told the participants of a conference on Tuesday in Manhattan, according to his prepared remarks.
“We will vigorously continue these investigations and open new ones,” added Mr. Galeotti, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn.
In a previous memo, Mr. Galeotti has described other changes, including a new policy of refusal to pursue certain offenses reported in the department by companies in a good faith effort of self-political. Critics believe that this decision is undergoing the deterrent of potential prosecution.
Mr. Galeotti defended the protocols, saying that they had already given advice on denunciation and a self-assessment linked to “drug trafficking, supply fraud, health care fraud and more”.
He concluded with a warning to lawyers representing companies, suggesting that they should not assume that they will obtain a romantic agreement if they are looking for “premature” advocacy agreements or making false allegations of prosecutors in an effort to obtain a lever effect.
“Be an honest broker,” he said.
