Hello and welcome to another MLEX podcast. I'm Amy Miller, Mlex a senior privacy and data security reporter in San Francisco, California.

Companies used to face complex uncertainties if they

acquired a business and then found evidence of past bribery, but new rules from the U.S.

Department of Justice may ease that pressure. Here to talk about those new rules and what they

mean for companies is Robert Thomason, one of our correspondents in Washington, D.C. Hi, Robert.

Hey Amy, how are you doing? Good, D.C. Hi, Robert. Hey, Amy.

How are you doing?

Good, good.

So why is the Justice Department now willing to let companies self-report bribery and avoid prosecution?

What's changed?

What has changed is they have announced a policy that gives a presumption of declination of prosecution.

Previously they had a pilot project where in which a company that self-reported and remediated

could get credit, could avoid prosecution. But last year they changed that to a presumption of a declination.

The other thing that has changed is that last month they announced an emphasis on mergers

and acquisitions, that they would be paying special attention to companies that acquire other companies and find that bribery had occurred.

So is this something that the Obama administration started?

Was this a pilot project with the Obama administration?

The Obama administration did start the pilot project that held out the possibility of a

declination of prosecution.

And then the Trump Sessions Justice Department beefed it up and made it a presumption

of declination.

So yes, the original idea was out of the Obama administration.

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