The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday announced a policy incentivizing companies to voluntarily self-report criminal conduct. The United States Attorney’s Offices’ Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, which is effective immediately, aims to nationally standardize these disclosures and encourage companies to maintain effective compliance programs, efficiently remediate misconduct and cooperate with the government in corporate investigations.

The US Attorney’s Office (USAO) set the standards of these voluntary disclosures. A disclosure is considered voluntary when there is no preexisting duty to disclose. The disclosure must also be made prior to any threat of disclosure or investigation, prior to the misconduct going public, and within a reasonable time of the company becoming aware of the conduct. The disclosure must also contain any and all relevant facts concerning the misconduct that the company is aware of.

The policy sets forth that prosecutors will not look for guilty pleas where companies have made voluntary self-disclosures that fall under these new policy guidelines. Other benefits set forth by the policy include the possibility of no criminal penalties and no independent compliance monitor if the company shows that it has enacted an effective compliance program.

US Attorney Breon Peace stated that the DOJ “hope[s] and expect[s] that companies, as good corporate citizens, will take advantage of this new policy to report criminal misconduct by employees and agents when they become aware of it, so that individual wrongdoers can be held accountable.”