The future of corporate criminal enforcement at the Department of Justice (DOJ) looks much like its past. At the American Conference Institute’s December 3–4, 2025 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Global Anti-Corruption conference, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, joined by the largest contingent of DOJ personnel to appear at an industry event in the second Trump Administration, detailed the department’s priorities.
DOJ Returns to the Conference Circuit
Six months after announcing revised guidelines for FCPA investigations and enforcement, Blanche offered his first significant explanation of the Administration’s views on FCPA enforcement. He reiterated principles that will continue to guide the DOJ’s FCPA enforcement efforts: individual accountability; efficient, disciplined investigations; a refusal to pursue corporate criminal resolutions without proof of criminal conduct beyond a reasonable doubt; emphasis on corporate cooperation; and caution against reflexive and indiscriminate attempts to appeal prosecutors’ decisions to senior DOJ officials.
Blanche emphasized American competitiveness as a focus in calibrating the DOJ’s FCPA enforcement. Foreign bribery, he explained, distorts global markets, harms honest companies, and creates an uneven playing field for companies that follow the rules. He stated that the DOJ will act decisively against schemes with meaningful U.S. ties, whether perpetrated by individuals or corporations, regardless of nationality. At the same time, Blanche outlined some limitations: matters lacking a substantial U.S. nexus or conduct involving de minimis courtesies or low-value, “customary business practices” may be declined for U.S. investigation and, instead, left to foreign authorities.
Blanche’s comments aligned with remarks by DOJ Criminal Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti and other senior DOJ officials, who emphasized that the DOJ’s current approach to FCPA enforcement is a “pivot” rather than a “sea change.” Galeotti and other DOJ officials repeatedly described their ongoing enforcement work as robust and driven by the guidelines announced earlier this year. After many months of near-absence from industry and bar conferences, the DOJ’s return to engagement with the white-collar defense bar was notable in and of itself, and the messaging from DOJ officials was in lockstep with the enforcement vision outlined by Blanche for both the FCPA specifically and white-collar crime more broadly.
Coming Soon: DOJ-Wide Corporate Enforcement Policy
Blanche also previewed the forthcoming rollout of a DOJ-wide Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP). Initially developed nearly a decade ago by the DOJ’s Criminal Fraud Section and refined and applied more broadly over successive Administrations, the CEP continues to focus on (and reward) three familiar concepts in the corporate criminal enforcement context: voluntary self-reporting, cooperation, and remediation. Blanche expressed a desire to ensure fairness in corporate prosecutions and ensure that this expectation would not change depending on the prosecutors handling the case.
Once issued, the new policy is expected to apply equally to Main Justice litigating sections in Washington and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country. The revised and expanded CEP will likely retain the familiar hallmarks of prior CEPs and include the most recent updates announced by Galeotti in May 2025 (analyzed in a prior advisory).
Other Notable Takeaways: Cartels, TCOs, and Trade Fraud
Echoing the President’s stated priorities, DOJ officials repeatedly emphasized their focus on investigating and prosecuting companies and individuals with ties to cartels, transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and trade fraud. Unsurprisingly, the DOJ’s recent deferred prosecution agreement with Comunicaciones Celulares S.A. (Comcel) (analyzed in a prior Alston & Bird advisory) featured prominently throughout the conference as the first corporate criminal resolution of this Administration and one in which the FCPA and narcotrafficking intersect.
FCPA Unit Chief David Fuhr asserted that it would be a mistake to expect narcotrafficking to have a part in every FCPA case, but like Galeotti he confirmed it remains a focus of FCPA enforcement. Galeotti further emphasized that as the DOJ applies its FCPA guidance to future cases, prosecutors will be looking carefully for any connection whatsoever to narcotrafficking, cartels, and TCOs.
Blanche, Galeotti, and other DOJ officials also reiterated the DOJ’s intention to expand its efforts against trade fraud, an area they characterized as “long under-enforced.” Blanche stated that the DOJ has already begun investigating and prosecuting individuals and companies involved in trade fraud schemes and will continue to do so with urgency.
What’s Next?
As the largest deployment of senior DOJ personnel to a white-collar enforcement conference since the start of the Trump Administration, the DOJ’s presence at the ACI FCPA event surely must be seen in part as a reaction to months of commentary about a DOJ de-emphasis on white-collar criminal enforcement. Indeed, Blanche devoted a heavily reported portion of his remarks to cautioning practitioners about offering such commentary publicly while suggesting the opposite when advocating for their clients before the DOJ. Just as surely, though, the DOJ’s messaging portends an uptick in corporate criminal enforcement in the months ahead, one that will proceed in clearly defined substantive areas under the familiar framework of the CEP.
If you have any questions, or would like additional information, please contact one of the attorneys on our White Collar, Government & Internal Investigations team.
You can subscribe to future advisories and other Alston & Bird publications by completing our publications subscription form.