Pietragallo’s Jim Kraus Presents At DRI Annual Meeting: SOX To Dodd-Frank – 10 Years Of Increased Government Enforcement And Current Trends

On October 25, 2012, Pietragallo’s Jim Kraus presented and moderated a panel discussion reviewing trends in government enforcement and prosecution in the ten years that have passed since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002.  The panel, which also included Scott A. Coffina of Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP and Jose P. Sierra of Fish and Richardson, PC, discussed the practical impact of the changing landscape of government enforcement, providing both historical perspective and analysis of current trends in the “policing” of corporate governance by both government regulators and DOJ.

The panel discussion was presented in conjunction with the Defense Research Institute’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans, October 24-27.  The backdrop of the discussion included historical perspective as demonstrated by the highly publicized fraud cases involving Enron, Tyco and Worldcom which gave rise to the legislative push that resulted in SOX, as well as the economic crisis of 2008, which spawned even more legislative and regulatory initiatives, notably the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.

The panel discussed current application of DOJ’s Principles for Prosecutions of Business Organizations, recent regulatory actions against and prosecutions of corporate officers, and the impact of enhanced whistleblower provisions under both the False Claims Act and Dodd-Frank.

The panel also provided updates regarding trends in DOJ’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and recent developments in enforcement of the False Claims Act against pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers for off-label marketing.