Don’t Look For ‘New’ Guidance, Koehler Says

Mike Koehler of the FCPA Professor talked to Reuters’ Brett Wolf this week about the DOJ’s promised FCPA guidance.

Don’t have high hopes for change, Koehler said.

Late last year, the DOJ’s Lanny Breuer announced his intention to release new FCPA guidance during 2012. Breuer said he hoped it would be ‘a useful and transparent aid.’

The Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are pushing FCPA reform that includes beefy guidance. But Koehler said the DOJ isn’t likely to produce any important information that’s not already public.

He told Reuters:

‘If you want to know the Justice Department’s position on [the definition of] foreign officials, all you have to do is look to its briefing in the foreign official challenges of 2011. If you want to know what it believes is an effective compliance program, look at the appendices of every single non-prosecution agreement or deferred prosecution agreement.

‘I mean the Justice Department’s guidance, its position, is not going to change. What is needed is not non-binding Justice Department guidance, but limited amendments and structural reforms.’