Compliance Stuff

With 2025 underway, the ArentFox Schiff White Collar team highlights the  US  Department of Justice’s ( DOJ ) new enforcement priorities and two cases pending before the  US  Supreme Court that could have sweeping implications for future white-collar fraud cases.   Within hours of her US Senate confirmation on February 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued 14 memoranda to all DOJ employees, shifting the DOJ’s focus toward national security priorities and reallocating investigative resources and personnel. These memoranda largely implement directives set forth in executive orders issued in the first days of the Trump Administration. The DOJ’s new enforcement priorities include illegal immigration, human smuggling, and transnational crime organizations (TCOs), gangs, and cartels . In support of these priorities, the DOJ will prioritize Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) actions with connections to TCOs, gangs, and c...

On February 5, 2025, newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to all U.S. Department of Justice Departments targeting private employers’ use of DEI initiatives.  The memo is titled “Ending Illegal DEI and DEIA Discrimination and Preferences.”  In it, AG Bondi states that the DOJ will “investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector and in educational institutions that receive federal funds.”   As a legal basis for such action, AG Bondi cites to the Supreme Court’s decision in  Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll. , 600 U.S. 181, 206 (2023), which held that the college and university Defendants’ affirmative action programs violated the promises of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.  Despite the case not directly applying to Title VII, the quote relied upon by AG Bondi from that case is “eliminating r...

  On January 21, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (“DEIA”) initiatives. On February 5, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi released a memorandum furthering the policy initiatives behind Trump’s Executive Order. Companies are now assessing their potential risk given the new administration’s clear policy to eliminate what it is referring to as “anti-discrimination” initiatives both within the federal government and private sector. Companies are likewise determining what they can do proactively to avoid becoming targets. This article explains why having an adequate compliance program, specifically a strong internal reporting mechanism is a key piece of that puzzle. Under his January 21, 2025 Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity Order, Trump: orders all executive departments and agencies to end illegal private-sector DEI preferences, ...