On Sept. 10, 2014, Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer spoke to the Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium at Georgetown University on the topic of "Prosecuting Antitrust Crimes," emphasizing the need for amnesty applicants to fulfill their obligations under the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act (ACPERA).
Baer explained that amnesty cooperation needs to be complete and robust, and that companies cannot pick and choose what they report about their overall wrongdoing. He said the fact that there may be a cooperating corporation has dramatically "changed the calculus" for other corporate co-conspirators, and as a result, the Division is seeing more companies seeking to mitigate the consequences of their cartel activity at early stages of investigations. Baer added that the Division takes compliance commitments seriously, and questions whether companies that continue to employ culpable senior executives who do not accept responsibility and are carved out of a corporate plea agreement are effective in their remediation efforts. In such cases, the Division may argue that a term of corporate probation is required, he said.
Assistant Attorney General Baer's full speech is available here.
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