Under the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made the fight against global corruption a central priority. Notably, the DOJ has recently taken steps to encourage its prosecutors to focus more on the investigation and prosecution of non-U.S. companies and individuals. These steps include adopting new policies making it harder to rely on foreign data privacy laws, increasing coordination with foreign authorities, and encouraging the prosecution of foreign individuals. Non-U.S. companies should be aware of the DOJ’s increased focus on investigating corporate crimes occurring outside of the United States.

One important question to ask is, however, just how far can the DOJ reach to investigate and collect evidence on alleged crimes by non-U.S. companies? The short answer is that the DOJ can reach very far. For example, the DOJ can use tools such as mutual legal assistance treaty requests, border searches, Patriot Act subpoenas, and email search warrants to pursue evidence located outside the United States. Such cross-border can also raise serious legal issues when there are conflicts with local laws.

Given the DOJ’s renewed focus on non-U.S. companies and individuals, it is now more important to understand the issues that arise in such investigations. On April 19, join our Investigations and White Collar Defense lawyers Nathaniel Edmonds, Leo Tsao, Shaun Wu and John Tso for the webinar on the latest DOJ’s policies and tools for collecting evidence outside of the U.S. for criminal investigations and prosecutions, and present strategies for non-U.S. companies to manage their enforcement risks.