2021 Year in Review: Top Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Compliance Trends and Developments

Covington’s Global Anti-Corruption Practice Group is pleased to share our 2021 Year in Review: Top Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Compliance Trends and Developments.

As we discuss in this advisory, over the past year, the Biden Administration has made it clear that corporate criminal enforcement and the fight against corruption are top priorities of the U.S. government. The Administration announced several policy initiatives and capacity-building efforts to bolster the ability of federal prosecutors to effectively and expansively pursue those who commit corporate crimes. How these priorities translate to U.S. anti-corruption enforcement remains to be seen, but we expect that anti-corruption prosecutors will aggressively deploy the new tools, resources, and policies at their disposal, and in turn will continue to invest heavily in anti-corruption investigations and enforcement. One senior DOJ official has recently pointed to a “robust pipeline” of anti-corruption cases, with “significant resolutions” expected in the next year. Although DOJ and the SEC resolved relatively few FCPA enforcement actions in 2021, we do not expect that trend to continue. Given the bullish enforcement attitude of the Biden Administration, companies must continue to invest in robust, meaningful, and measurable compliance program enhancements to gain comfort around their efficacy, to meet regulator expectations, and to best position themselves should they find themselves in the government’s crosshairs.