Craig Heeren Discusses DOJ’s Self-Disclosure Scheme With Foreign Investment Watch

In an article for Foreign Investment Watch, business litigation partner and co-leader of Faegre Drinker’s national security team discussed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to ensure companies voluntarily self-disclose violations of national security laws directly to the agency.

According to the article, the DOJ’s National Security Division announced that the voluntary self-disclosure policy includes violations of “primary export control and sanctions regimes” as well as laws prohibiting material support to and financing of foreign terrorist organizations, criminal violations in connection with the work of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States … and the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector.” However, Heeren noted that the National Security Division was already the proper division to contact if a company decided to make a disclosure about a national security-related issue that could trigger a DOJ investigation.

“I think the new policy increases the importance of early decision making, which will have an impact on the timing and nature of disclosures to other agencies,” added Heeren. To get full credit under the new policy, he noted that the disclosed conduct must be previously unknown to DOJ. “While there are some important caveats to that requirement, it generally means that time is of the essence, and so a company must consider making disclosure quite quickly after it identifies potential misconduct.”