Former DOJ Deputy Chief Predicts Increase in FCPA Prosecutions of Individuals and Self-Reporting By Companies

On Thursday, March 17, 2011, the Wall Street Journal published an interview (available here, log-in required) with Mark Mendelsohn, the former Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section at DOJ, whose responsibilities included enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA").

Mr. Mendelsohn, who left DOJ in 2010 to join Paul Weiss, discussed the future of FCPA enforcement. Highlights of the interview included:

• "The Dodd-Frank whistleblower provision is going to significantly change the game and create large financial incentives for whistleblowers to come forward to the SEC. We’re going to see even more reporting to the government both by companies looking to get ahead of the whistleblowers and by whistleblowers. It will be a real challenge for the SEC and DOJ to keep up."

• "The rise in prosecutions of individuals I think is a trend that is here to stay and will continue to grow especially as the Justice Department and the SEC have more resources at their disposal."