DOJ Doubles Down on Anti-Corruption Enforcement in Central America: What You Need to Know

On the heels of President Joe Biden’s June 3 National Security Memorandum on Establishing the Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest (the “Memo”), which we covered in a previous alert, on June 7 the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced an initiative to Combat Human Smuggling and Trafficking and to Fight Corruption in Central America (the “Initiative”). The Initiative is part of the Biden Administration’s comprehensive strategy to address underlying factors leading to migration from Central America to the United States described in the February 2 Executive Order on Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework to Address the Causes of Migration, to Manage Migration Throughout North and Central America, and to Provide Safe and Orderly Processing of Asylum Seekers at the United States Border (the “Order”).

On June 7, Vice President Kamala Harris, during her first international trip as Vice President, to Guatemala, reinforced the Administration’s assessment that corruption constitutes one of the root causes of migration and announced that the United States will create an anti-corruption task force in which the DOJ, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Department of State “will work together to conduct investigations and train local law enforcement to conduct their own.” Simultaneously, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the Initiative – a “series of steps that the Department of Justice is taking to address the threats posed by both corruption and by transnational human smuggling and trafficking networks.” The bulk of the Initiative focuses on combating human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but aspects of the Initiative clearly signal increased anti-corruption enforcement in Central America, as well.

Reflecting the deeper level of coordination envisioned by President Biden’s Order and the Memo, the Initiative establishes Joint Task Force Alpha (the “Task Force”) that partners DOJ’s investigative and prosecutorial resources with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (the “DEA”). The Task Force will be comprised of prosecutors from U.S. Attorney’s Offices, personnel from DOJ’s Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions, agents and analysts from DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, and personnel from the FBI and DEA. In addition to these coordinated efforts, DOJ’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (“OPDAT”) and its International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (“ICITAP”) will coordinate with the U.S. Department of State and counterparts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries to prosecute smuggling and trafficking networks, as well as corruption in the region.

With respect to anti-corruption enforcement, the Task Force will complement DOJ’s anti-corruption enforcement efforts in the region, including the FBI’s International Corruption Squad, which was created in 2019 to investigate corruption and money laundering stemming from Latin America. The Initiative also follows in the wake of the United States-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act enacted by Congress, which requires the U.S. Department of State to assemble a list of “corrupt and undemocratic actors” in the Northern Triangle (the “Engel List”) and which is expected to be released by the end of June 2021. In addition to these efforts, under the Initiative, DOJ will increase its focus on investigations and prosecutions of and asset recoveries from both bribe payers and bribe takers by leveraging its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement program and its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. Moreover, OPDAT and ICITAP personnel will work with their local counterparts to build and enhance local anti-corruption enforcement programs that will also bolster cooperation with DOJ on enforcement matters.

Following the heightened focus on anti-corruption coordination and enforcement stemming from President Biden’s Memo, the message should be clear:  anti-corruption enforcement will be a priority for the DOJ, and even more so in Central America. Companies that do business in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries would be well advised to take note of the increasing focus on and enhanced resources available for anti-corruption enforcement and to consider prioritizing risk assessments, training, and other proactive compliance measures focused on the region.

The following Covington lawyers assisted in preparing this client update: Don Ridings, Jennifer Saperstein, Daniel Shallman, Adam Studner, Veronica Yepez, and Diane Ramirez.