Doj-Memo updates priorities in the enforcement of employed crime

On May 12, 2025, the crime of the US Ministry of Justice published a new guide to enforce employees in the Trump management entitled “Focus, fairness and efficiency in the fight against the crime of effect. “”

In this memo and the accompanying speech by Matthew R. Galeotti, the Trump government, who was appointed head of the criminal department, the Doj confirmed his previously declared commitment to pursue illegal immigration, drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations. For the first time in the new administration, however, the doj clearly articulated new priorities in the enforcement of employees and steered the crime to follow three core wounds: focus, fairness and efficiency. As described below, the new memo contains the following three priorities:

1. Focus on high effects, fraud and abuse that damage taxpayers in need of protection

It should not be a surprise that the administration aims at actors who benefit from “waste, fraud and abuse”. The memo is clear priorities for its prosecutors to examine and list the fraud for the fraud of the healthcare system as well as the federal program and the procurement fraud. The memo offers a top 10 list of “high-quality areas” with “trade and customs fraud, including the tariff exposure” as number 2. The US investors, including older fraud and Ponzi programs, are also listed. On the list, violations of the law on controlled substances and the law on Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic, including the creation of fake pills with fentanyl and the “illegal distribution of opioids by medical specialists and companies” appear on the list.

The memo also prioritizes the efforts to identify and confiscate assets that are the proceeds from crimes that damage the victims in need of protection by changing the pilot program of the Corporate Whistleblower Awards from the Doj Criminal Division in which whistleblow -tips lead to disrupting. These areas include criminal violations in connection with international criminal organizations, companies that violate the federal immigration laws, corporate sanctions and trade offenses as well as other areas in accordance with the previously given priorities of the administration.

2. Fairness in the persecution of companies and individuals

In accordance with the prospect of previous administrations, the Doj clearly found that its first priority is to pursue people in contrast to companies. The memo notes that individuals crime crimes at the expense of corporate representatives, employees, investors and American consumers. The memo also states that “the guidelines of the department have to be an adequate balance between the need to effectively identify, examine and pursue criminal misconduct of companies and individuals, while unnecessary stress for American companies is minimized.” The memo warns that not all of the company's misconduct companies justify the law enforcement of the federal government and indicates the public prosecutor's office to examine additional factors if there is determined whether there are criminal complaints against companies, including the question of whether the company has reported its behavior to the DOJ. the willingness of the company to work with state investigations; and remedial measures by the company. The memo also states that “public prosecutors should prioritize systems of the high -ranking staff or other culpable actors, demonstrable losses and efforts to disability the justice.”

3. Perform efficient examinations that do not linger

The memo acknowledges that federal investigations on alleged company deforms for companies, investors and other other things can be expensive and intrusive and in which people who were affected by a lengthy examination often had no knowledge or participation in the behavior in question. The memo also admits that corporate investigations can disrupt the daily operation of a company and cause reputation damage. In order to reduce the effects on companies and trade, the prosecutors must now minimize the length and collateral effects of their investigations by working quickly to examine cases and make the exposure decisions.

In addition, the DOJ changes that could be regarded as more business -friendly, such as that potentially costly corporate surveillance are unfavorable and are only imposed under limited circumstances and that a review of existing surveillance ships and agreements are ordered with companies. The memo also limits the existing corporate decisions to three years, except in extraordinarily rare cases, whereby the instructions regularly evaluate these agreements to determine whether early termination is appropriate.

Although many of these changes were expected in the months since the change of administration, the memo offers clarity and concrete priority areas for law enforcement – as well as areas in which the DOJ will fall back on the supervision of the federal government, such as: B. surveillance ships.

The newly revised judicial instructions will be presented in our next blog.

We will monitor additional developments in this area, since the administration continues to implement changes of guidelines.