AG: We’ll Go After White-Collar Criminals Too

WASHINGTON — In his first weeks as attorney general, Jeff Sessions has kept a relentless focus on his plans to crack down on illegal immigration and violent crime.

On Monday, he said that doesn’t mean corrupt businesses will get a pass.

“We also have a responsibility to protect American consumers,” he told a conference of attorneys in Washington. “These laws are in place for a reason. When they are broken, it has real consequences in peoples’ lives.”

Sessions was trying to counter concerns that under President Donald Trump, who still owns vast worldwide business holdings, the Justice Department would ease back on pursuing white-collar fraud and corporate corruption.

“Focusing on these challenges does not mean we will reduce our efforts in other areas,” Sessions said.

An early draft of the speech cited the department’s recent case against Takata Corp., which pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and was fined $1 billion for providing false test data about its automotive air-bag inflators.

The assembled lawyers handle compliance work, making sure companies are on the right side of the law. Good compliance procedures will help companies get a break when prosecutors make charging decisions, Sessions said.

Sessions also pledged that the Justice Department would aggressively enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime for businesses to pay bribes to foreign officials to win deals.

“Companies should succeed because they provide superior products and services, not because they have paid off the right people,” Sessions said.

Trump has in the past been harshly critical of the anti-bribery statute, saying it was “a horrible law’ that placed American businesses at a “huge disadvantage” overseas.

Copyright 2017 Tribune Co.

Tribune News Service