Justice Dept. and SEC Allow Companies to Investigate Themselves

[Doctor_J]

Source: AllGov

When it comes to investigating corporations of bribery and other crimes, the federal government prefers to save money—and allow suspects to conduct their own probes—than perform their own snooping from start to finish.

Whether the concern is foreign or domestic corruption by U.S. companies, the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission have increasingly allowed corporations to hire teams of lawyers and accountants to interview employees, gather electronic records and sift through documents, according to The Washington Post. Then, federal investigators review the results and decide whether to step in and probe the situation themselves or if they should indict anyone.

For corporations, conducting the internal investigations is not cheap. Diebold, which makes ATMs, spent $16 million, Avon more than $130 million and Siemens about $950 million. However, if the Siemens figure seems impressive, it is worth noting that it was still cost-effective for the company. In addition to the $950 million, Siemens paid fines of $800 million. But the $1.7 billion total was still less than the $2.7 billion that it could have been fined for bribing foreign officials. And not a single Siemens executive or employee had been prosecuted by the Justice Department.

Does allowing the fox to count the chickens produce honest and thorough assessments? No one can be certain. The Justice Department insists it does not take companies at their word. But a former federal prosecutor told The Washington Post that “other than integrity” there is “very little” to guarantee that internal probes won’t omit evidence of wrongdoing.


Read more: http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Justice_Dept_and_SEC_Allow_Companies_to_Investigate_Themselves_110524

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:rofl:

Maybe murderers & child molestors should be allowed to police themselves. That would put a crimp in the profits of the Prison Industrial Complex, but would save a lot of tax $.

[No Elephants]

1. Whatever money is taken from our hides to maintain federal agencies to protect us

is obviously money very well spent.

This is undoubtedly the best way to get at the whole truth because employees are likelier to be more open and honest with their own employers than they would be speaking confidentially to the government, perhaps with a promise of immunity.

Hell, it worked great when the SEC investigated Madoff, didn't it?

[Donnachaidh]

2. More of that *Change We Can Believe in*?

Yeah -- that's what -I- voted for. :sarcasm:

[Doctor_J]

3. DC is COMPLETELY out of control

Our government has no connection to the citizenry whatsoever at this point. The fact that they are paid with our tax dollars is the biggest case of fraud in history.