Insights

Washington – February 27, 2023: Global Investigations Review has named Crowell & Moring’s Investigations and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement groups to its prestigious GIR 100 list, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices. Based on extensive research, GIR selects 100 firms from around the world that it deems most able to handle sophisticated cross-border government-led and internal investigations. This is the eighth consecutive year that Crowell & Moring has made the list.

The Supreme Court last week blessed a broad reading of the federal wire fraud statute, resolving a circuit split over whether economic loss is an element of fraudulent inducement and bolstering the Government’s future enforcement of procurement fraud. In Kousisis et al. v. United States (unanimous in judgment), the Court upheld the conviction of a government contractor for falsely representing compliance with disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) requirements in contracts awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), despite completing the contracts to PennDOT’s satisfaction. The Court held that a material misrepresentation used to deceive someone into parting with money or property is sufficient for a federal wire fraud conviction, regardless of whether the victim suffered any economic loss.

On February 5, 2025, the newly sworn-in Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum with the subject Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations. Attorney General Bondi’s memorandum lays out four distinct avenues to achieve President Trump’s stated policy of eliminating TCOs and Cartels.[1]  These include changing DOJ charging priorities, “removing bureaucratic impediments to aggressive prosecutions,” expanding certain task forces related to TCOs and Cartels, and advocating for certain legislative changes. 

On April 15, 2024, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Nicole Argentieri announced a new Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosure for Individuals (“Pilot Program” or “Program”). The Pilot Program offers a clear path for voluntary self-disclosure by certain corporate executives and other individuals who are themselves involved in misconduct by corporations, in exchange for a Non-Prosecution Agreement (“NPA”). The Pilot Program specifically targets individuals who disclose to the Criminal Division at DOJ in Washington, D.C. information about certain corporate criminal conduct. By carving out a clear path to non-prosecution for those who qualify, DOJ has created another tool to uncover complex crimes that might not otherwise be reported to the Department.