On March 10, 2026, the Department of Justice released the first-ever Department-wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (CEP) for criminal matters, which is designed to promote uniformity, predictability, and fairness in how it pursues white-collar cases. The CEP supersedes all existing enforcement policies at DOJ, including the Criminal Division’s prior policy, and applies to all corporate criminal cases except those relating to antitrust. Its stated purpose is to incentivize corporate voluntary self-disclosures while still permitting prosecutions in appropriate circumstances.
A quick 9 days later on March 19, 2026 the DOJ announced its first resolution under the CEP involving a foreign bribery investigation into Balt SAS, a medical device company headquartered in France. According to the DOJ’s Press Release, the resolution related to an alleged scheme to pay bribes to a physician (Official) who served in a senior role at a stateowned public hospital in France, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). As alleged, brides were paid to this Official in order for the Official to cause the hospital to buy medical devises (embolization coils and ancillary products). To conceal the scheme, the Press Release indicates that the co-conspirators allegedly used sham consulting agreements, fake invoices and personal email accounts. According to the DOJ’s declination letter, the alleged bribery scheme brought in over $1.6 million in revenue and $1.2 million in profits. But, because Balt voluntarily self-disclosed the misconduct, fully cooperated with the DOJ’s investigation, timely and appropriately remediated the wrongdoing, and agreed to pay approximately $1.2 million in disgorgement, among other factors, Balt met the elements of the CEP and the Department declined to prosecute.
But there is more to the story – and a lesson for all of us…
While the DOJ decided to decline to prosecute Balt, the DOJ noted in its declination that Balt agreed to fully cooperate with the DOJ’s on-going investigation, “including, but not limited to, the continued provision of information and making available for interviews and/or testimony those officers, employees or agents who possess relevant information, in the sole discretion of the Government.” (emphasis added) Further, the letter states that it does not “provide any protection against the prosecution of any individuals, regardless of their affiliation with Balt.” Thus, this first declination under the new CEP reinforces DOJ’s long-standing emphasis on individual accountability (Yates Memo, 2015) and that part of receiving cooperation credit is identifying those who may have been responsible for the misconduct.
It may come as no surprise, then, that a grand jury in a federal California court returned an indictment against two businessmen for their roles in the alleged bribery scheme (allegedly paying bribes to the Official). Each was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, two counts of violating the FCPA, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of money laundering. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison for each of the bribery conspiracy and bribery charges and 20 years in prison for each of the money laundering conspiracy and money laundering charges. This case clearly shows that by pairing a declination with individual prosecutions, DOJ continues to reinforce a core enforcement message: companies that voluntarily disclose and fully cooperate may receive significant benefits, but individuals responsible for misconduct should expect to face prosecution.