The key to the Department's federal
white-collar crime enforcement effort is to use the Government's resources
as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to punish offenders,
recover damages, and prevent future misconduct. In recent years, we have
pursued greater numbers of complex cases, in which the Government has been
required to employ the full range of criminal, civil and administrative
remedies and sanctions. The challenge requires greater cooperation, communication
and teamwork between the criminal and civil prosecutors who are often conducting
parallel investigations of the same offenders and matters. Although policies
and procedures on parallel proceedings have been adopted by many of the
United States Attorneys' offices, and Department components, I am issuing
the following policy statement to clarify the Department's priorities and
responsibilities in this new litigative environment.
We have experienced significant
change in the way the Government fights white-collar crime. We have also
experienced enormous growth of affirmative civil enforcement (ACE), and
with additional ACE resources, annual recoveries have increased by hundreds
of millions of dollars. Enforcement priorities encompass not only government
procurement and health care fraud, but also consumer protection, the environment,
tax, and securities fraud, which implicate a variety of civil, criminal,
and regulatory remedies.
In order to maximize the efficient
use of resources, it is essential that our attorneys consider whether there
are investigative steps common to civil and criminal prosecutions, and
to agency administrative actions, and that they discuss all significant
issues that might have a bearing on the matter as a whole with their colleagues.
When appropriate, criminal, civil, and administrative attorneys should
coordinate an investigative strategy that includes prompt decisions on
the merits of criminal and civil matters; sensitivity to grand jury secrecy,
tax disclosure limitations and civil statutes of limitation; early computation
and recovery of the full measure of the Government's losses; prevention
of the dissipation of assets; global settlements; proper use of discovery;
and compliance with the Double Jeopardy Clause. By bringing additional
expertise to our efforts, expanding our arsenal of remedies, increasing
program integrity and deterring future violations, we represent the full
range of the Government's interests.
Accordingly, every United States
Attorney's office and each Department Litigating Division should have a
system for coordinating the criminal, civil and administrative aspects
of all white-collar crime matters within the office. The system should
contain management procedures to address issues of parallel proceedings
including: