By Jim Hoover
On May 12, 2025, the head of the United States Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Matthew Galeotti, issued a Memorandum to all division personnel outlining the division’s updated enforcement priorities. The stated purpose of the Memorandum is to outline the Criminal Division’s enforcement priorities and policies for prosecuting corporate and white-collar crimes in the new Administration. When investigating and prosecuting these crimes, Criminal Division attorneys will be guided by three core tenets: (1) focus; (2) fairness; and (3) efficiency. The Memorandum elaborates on these principles and amends several Criminal Division policies.
Focus - The Department of Justice (“Department”) listed 10 priorities in high-impact areas of focus. Three of which include health care topics. The top ten areas are:
1. Waste, fraud, and abuse, including health care fraud and federal program and procurement fraud that harm the public fisc;
2. Trade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion;
3. Fraud perpetrated through certain foreign adversary companies;
4. Fraud that victimizes U.S. investors, individuals, and markets including, but not limited to, Ponzi schemes, investment fraud, elder fraud, service member fraud, and fraud that threatens the health and safety of consumers;
5. Conduct that threatens the country’s national security, including threats to the U.S. financial system by gatekeepers, such as financial institutions and their insiders;
6. Material support by corporations to foreign terrorist organizations, including recently designated Cartels and transnational criminal organizations (“TCOs)”;
7. Complex money laundering, including Chinese Money Laundering Organizations, and other organizations involved in laundering funds used in the manufacturing of illegal drugs;
8. Violations of the Controlled Substances Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), including the unlawful manufacture and distribution of chemicals and equipment used to create counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and unlawful distribution of opioids by medical professionals and companies;
9. Bribery and associated money laundering that impact U.S. national interests, undermine U.S. national security, harm the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, and enrich foreign corrupt officials; and
10. Crimes (1) involving digital assets that victimize investors and consumers; (2) that use digital assets in furtherance of other criminal conduct; and (3) willful violations that facilitate significant criminal activity.
The Memorandum also identifies dishonest actors that exploit government programs to enrich themselves through waste, fraud, and abuse, and specifically discusses rampant health care fraud by corporations and individuals that defraud important government initiatives such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Fairness - The Memorandum outlines the Department’s steps towards fairness in prosecuting corporations and individuals. The Department’s first priority is to prosecute individual criminals. The Memorandum recognizes that individuals such as company executives, officers, or employees of the companies are the ones who commit the crimes.
The Department also acknowledges that not all corporate misconduct warrants federal criminal prosecution. Prosecution of individuals, as well as civil and administrative remedies directed at corporations, are often appropriate to address low-level corporate misconduct and vindicate U.S. interests. Prosecutors in the Criminal Division must consider additional factors when determining whether to charge corporations, including whether the company reported the conduct to the Department, the company’s willingness to cooperate with the government, and its actions to remediate the misconduct.
To help ensure fairness and individualized assessments, Mr. Galeotti directed the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section to revise the Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (“CEP”) to clarify that additional benefits are available to companies that self-disclose and cooperate, including potential shorter terms. The Department has revised the CEP so that its core components such as the paths for potential declination, the available fine reductions for a company’s cooperation and remediation, and relevant factors that determine corporate resolution are more easily understandable.
Efficiency – The Memorandum directs prosecutors to move expeditiously to investigate cases and make charging decisions. This means offices will work closely with the relevant Sections to track investigations and ensure that cases do not linger and are swiftly concluded.
Additionally, independent compliance monitors must only be imposed when they are necessary, i.e., when a company cannot be expected to implement an effective compliance program or prevent recurrence of the underlying misconduct without such heavy-handed intervention. When imposed, monitorships must be narrowly tailored to achieve the necessary goals while minimizing expense, burden and interference with the business.
The Memorandum makes clear that investing in effective compliance programs and being transparent with authorities will help protect against criminal liability or at least help reduce potential consequences. The revised CEP policies provide enhanced incentives for voluntary self-disclosure, while also clarifying the consequences of failing to meet these standards.
Additionally, with the expansion of the Whistleblower Pilot Program, companies must be vigilant across a wider range of legal and regulatory risks. Proactive compliance and a strong internal reporting culture are more important than ever to mitigate the risk of whistleblower actions and DOJ enforcement. Accordingly, companies should review and update their internal investigation, reporting and remediation processes where appropriate to ensure they are positioned to take full advantage of the updated policies and current enforcement culture.
Jim Hoover is a health care trial and compliance Partner at Burr & Forman LLP practicing exclusively in the firm’s health care group. Jim may be reached by telephone at (205) 458-5111 or by E-mail at jhoover@burr.com.
