For a Better Way to Prosecute Corporations, Look Overseas
The favored new tool of the corporate prosecutor, the deferred prosecution agreement, is being actively exported to other countries. In these agreements, prosecutors allow large corporations to avoid a criminal prosecution entirely by agreeing to pay a fine and adopt reforms. Five years after the financial crisis, many doubt whether prosecutors have taken business crime seriously enough, and some of the blame is laid on lenient deferred prosecution agreements.
We can learn some lessons about how to better hold corporations accountable for crimes, though, from the way these types of prosecution agreements are now being used across the globe. After passing detailed legislation approving their use, the British government has circulated plans for a potentially more rigorous deferred prosecution agreement program.