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Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Joe Whitley offered insights into the Department of Justice’s settlement of an alleged bribery scheme with the Anti-Corruption Report.
Recently, two UK-based reinsurance brokers and the DOJ reached three-year deferred prosecution agreements. The reinsurance brokers also agreed to pay more than $47 million related to allegations they bribed Ecuadoran government officials.
Whitley told Anti-Corruption Report that the settlements reflect the DOJ’s generally pro-business approach, which he believes is positive.
“We should have high moral conduct and good standards in our corporations. That’s the expectation,” said Whitley, a former Acting Associate Attorney General in the DOJ, said. However, he added that “permitting the companies to continue to stay in business, pay hefty fines, of course, and agree to cooperate are all things that make sense.”
He continued saying, “You can send a message in a lot of different ways. And I do think not putting a corporation out of business is a good thing if the corporation itself is really providing a quality product or has honest employees for the most part at the lower levels.”
Click here to read the full article in the Anti-Corruption Report (subscription required).
Joe Whitley, former Acting Associate Attorney General, U.S. Attorney in the Northern (Atlanta) and Middle (Macon) Districts of Georgia, represents clients on a variety of white-collar matters, including corporate internal investigations, regulatory enforcement, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and export controls compliance, corporate compliance, health care fraud and FDA-related matters, in addition to matters related to securities fraud, criminal antitrust, financial institution fraud, public corruption and campaign finance, and commercial bribery.
