New Guidance on Inability to Pay Penalties
The Justice Department has published fresh guidance about how it will evaluate a company’s claims that it can’t afford to pay monetary penalties. Importantly, such claims will only be considered after the company and prosecutors agree on settlement of a case, and factors such as voluntary disclosure and cooperation have already been considered.
Assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski’s memo to prosecutors includes an 11-point laundry list of financial data that companies will be expected to supply: cash-flow projections, operating budgets, proposed changes to capital structure, acquisition and divestiture plans, insurance claims, liens on assets, audited financial statements, tax returns, and more.
