Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims Amid Pandemic, Justice Department Official Says
Some companies have claimed they can’t pay a full criminal penalty amid the recession caused by the coronavirus, the official says. Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims Amid Pandemic, Justice Department Official Says
Recent Justice Department guidance on how prosecutors should handle claims by companies that say they can’t pay a criminal penalty has taken on new relevance in light of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Some companies have claimed they can’t pay criminal penalties as a result of the recession caused by the coronavirus, Brian Rabbitt, the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s criminal division, said Thursday during the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum.
“We certainly have seen arguments raised, claims raised about ability to pay during the pandemic,” Mr. Rabbitt said during the virtual conference. “We’re approaching those like we would approach them during normal times.”
The criminal division, which investigates a range of business crimes, released guidance on such inability-to-pay claims in October 2019—well before the pandemic began. The document spells out the legal considerations prosecutors should bring to bear when evaluating such claims, including the business’s income, earning capacity and financial resources.
Prosecutors last month applied the guidance for the first time to a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case involving Sargeant Marine Inc. The Florida asphalt company was given a discount of more than 80% off its criminal penalty.
Sargeant Marine ultimately agreed to pay $16.6 million to resolve charges that it paid millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador. The company had earned more than twice that much—$38 million—in profits from its bribery schemes, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department will consider inability-to-pay claims even when a company’s misconduct is egregious, Mr. Rabbitt said.
Prosecutors must balance the harm caused by a company’s misconduct with the considerations outlined in the guidance, including the company’s anticipated future cash flows, its need for working capital and its anticipated uses of that capital, he said.
“When companies do come in, we take those claims seriously,” Mr. Rabbitt said. “But we verify them.”
The burden of proving that it can’t pay a fine rests with the company, according to the guidance. Vetting that claim could require the Justice Department to hire an independent forensic accounting expert to analyze a company’s financials, the guidance says.
While the department is willing to consider the financial woes faced by companies currently negotiating a settlement, it might be less sympathetic when investigating compliance failures that occur as a result of cuts made to a company’s compliance program.
“We recognize that tweaks and changes and adjustments will have to be made,” Mr. Rabbitt said. “The message that we would send to compliance professionals and to corporations is to make sure you’re thoughtful about how you do that. Make sure that any changes you make are risk-based.”
“When we’re looking back on all this in retrospect…we’re going to ask tough questions about why changes were made,” he added.
Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims,Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims,Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims,Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims,Companies Raise Inability-To-Pay Claims,
Related Articles:
Homeland Security To Grant Millions To Groups To Combat White Supremacists And Other Extremists
Prediction (Betting) Market Doubts Trump Will Complete First Term After COVID-19 Diagnosis
Trump Used Facebook To Try And Convince 3.5 Million Black Americans Not To Vote In 2016
Trump’s Tax Revelation Destroys Successful Business Mogul Image
Cost Of Racism: U.S. Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because Of Discrimination, Bank Says
Bloomberg, Others Rack Up $20M To Register 32K Florida Felons Deeming Them “Time Served”
Some Wealthy Americans Are Already Prepping Their Finances For A Joe Biden Presidency — Here’s How
Kamala Harris Woos Black And Latino Voters As Joe Biden’s Running Mate
Biden Appeals To Florida Latinos As Polls Show Trump Gaining
Poll: Should Trump As A Civilian Face Class-Action Lawsuits For Minimizing Severity Of Covid19?
Trump As A Civilian To Face Avalanche Of Lawsuits!!!!
Trumponomics Forces Amazon Drivers To Hang Cellphones From Trees Desperate To Get Gigs
Trump Is Silent While Russian Navy Conducts Biggest Drills Near Alaska Since Soviet Era
Open Letter To Supporters of The Draft-Dodger-In-Chief!
Right-Wing Facebook MEGA-Troll Wall-Of-Shame
Donald Law And Order Trump Encourages People In North Carolina To Vote Twice, Which Is Illegal
Here’s Why No Bankers Go To Jail (#GotBitcoin?)
Cities With Republican Mayors Also Had Protests Which Resulted In Property Damage
Trumponomic’s Furloughs Turn Into Permanent Job Losses (#GotBitcoin?)
Trump White House Commits Multiple Hatch Act Violations In Re-Election Attempt
After Three Years of Attacking L.G.B.T.Q. Rights, Trump Suddenly Tries Outreach
Scrapping Payroll Tax Without Replacement Would Hit Social Security Benefits By 2021 (#GotBitcoin?)
Money Funds Waive Charges to Keep Yields From Falling Below Zero (#Bitcoin?)
Millions of US Jobs To Be Lost For Years, IRS Projections Show (#GotBitcoin?)
Kellyanne Conway To Leave White House As Trump Divisiveness Indeed Hits Close To Home
The US National Debt Has Exceeded The Total Value Of The GDP (#GotBitcoin?)
When The Stock Market And Economy Becomes Disconnected (#Bitcoin?)
Donald Trump, Peter Navarro (Trade Adviser) And A $765 Million Loan To Kodak That Deal Blew Up
Steve Bannon Joins Six Other Criminally Charged Ex-Trump Advisers
Trump Calls For Goodyear Boycott Amid Outrage Over ‘MAGA’ Ban
Trump’s Big Donors From 2016 Want Nothing To Do With Him This Year
State Budgets Hit Hard By Trumponomics Create A Drag On U.S. Recovery
Joe Biden-Kamala Harris Ticket Makes Debut After Historic VP Pick
Biden, Obama Release Campaign Video Applauding Their Achievements
Small Businesses Brace For Prolonged Crisis, Short On Cash And Customers (#GotBitcoin?)
Ultimate Resource For Violations of The U.S. Constitution Including “Money” And Coronavirus
Trump Campaign Forced To Use Tele-Rallies As Coronavirus Cases Surge
Roger Stone Uses Racial Slur In Live Radio Interview With Black Host
The Fed Is Setting The Stage For Hyper-Inflation Of The Dollar (#GotBitcoin?)
The Next Phase Of The Retail Apocalypse: Stores Reborn As E-Commerce Warehouses
Republicans Alarmed By Democratic Senate Hopefuls’ Fundraising Haul
American Airlines Plans To Furlough Up To 25,000 Workers This Fall (#GotBitcoin?)
Consumer Appetite For Cars, Homes Bolsters U.S. Economy
Banks Get Ready For Wave of Recession-Led Loan Defaults (#GotBitcoin?)
32% of U.S. Households Missed Their July Housing Payments
What You Need To Know About The New Small-Business Bankruptcy Laws
Police Wrestle With Surge In Crime In U.S. Cities Amid Defunding Efforts
Here’s An Investment That Perfectly Tracks The Economy
Fed, Treasury Disagreements Slowed Start of Main Street Lending Program
When A Texas Oil Boom Goes Busts
Trump Takes Cognitive Test And Can Identify A Rhino vs A Camel
Don’t Know How Much Stimulus Is Needed? Put It On Autopilot, Some Say
Colorado Police Chief Fires Three Officers Over Reenacted Chokehold Placed On Elijah Mcclain
Republicans Give Trump Labor Day Deadline To Turn Things Around. After That, He’s On His Own
Chapter 11 Business Bankruptcies Rose 26% In First Half of 2020
Chaotic Trump Administration Plus Russian Bounty Intelligence Equals Loss Of American Lives
Supreme Court Orders Restructuring of Consumer-Finance Watchdog
Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans ‘The_Donald’ Subreddit
Private Equity’s Trillion-Dollar Piggy Bank Holds Little For Struggling Companies (#GotBitcoin?)
TikTok Teens Overload Trump’s Online Store With Orders Only To Abandon Shopping Cart
Fed Stress Test Finds U.S. Banks Not Healthy Enough To Withstand “Few Quarters” Economic Downturn
Elizabeth Warren Was Right About Whacky Stockmarket Fundamentals (#GotBitcoin?)
Two Of The Latest High-Profile Trump Resignations
US Banks Have Seen A Record $2 Trillion Surge Of Deposits Since The Coronavirus Crisis Began
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.