Attorney General Eric Holder and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Marshall Miller have sent the message that the Department of Justice is looking to hold individuals responsible for corporate crime.

Holder, speaking at New York University, announced that the department is currently investigating the conduct of individuals at certain financial institutions and “expect[s] to bring charges in the coming months.” Holder also called on Congress to provide more robust incentives for whistleblowers under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”), and suggested a reward commensurate with that provided under the False Claims Act (up to 30% of the sanction imposed) to induce employees to come forward with information.

Miller, during a speech at the Global Investigation Review Program, likewise said that “[t]he prosecution of individuals — including corporate executives — for white-collar crimes is at the very top of the Criminal Division’s priority list.” Miller stressed the benefit to a company under investigation that cooperates with the Department of Justice by providing evidence of individual culpability, instructing that companies seeking cooperation credit should be ready to disclose the evidence “uncovered as to the culpable individuals, what steps [the company] took to see if individual culpability crept up the corporate ladder, [and] how tireless [the company’s] efforts were to find the people responsible.”