Justice Department ups the incentive for companies to rat out their own employees

Source: Business Insider

Aug 1, 2025, 10:54 AM ET


In June, Matthew Galeotti, the head of the Department of Justice's criminal division, gave a speech outlining the Trump administration's law enforcement priorities. About halfway through, Galeotti used a word that ricocheted through the offices of white-collar lawyers around the country: "will."

The Justice Department was announcing that it would provide declination letters — formal commitments not to prosecute companies — to companies that turn in their employees for potential white collar crimes.

Before the second Trump administration, there was only a "presumption" of a declination. The Justice Department had signaled it was safe for companies to self-report potential crimes or misconduct, but it still retained the discretion to prosecute if it wanted to, according to Lisa Zornberg, an attorney at Morvillo Abramowitz and former federal prosecutor.

That one word — will — replaced years of ambiguity with a guarantee. Galeotti told BI in a statement that his revisions to the policy maximize the criminal division's enforcement efforts by encouraging companies to voluntarily self-disclose potential wrongdoing, cooperate with investigations, and "disgorge ill-gotten gains."

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-self-report-crime-misconduct-justice-department-policy-2025-7