Johnston said it will be a busy year. “I think we’re in an upswing period of prosecutions,” she explained. “2024 will be like late 2022 and 2023—a lot of subpoenas and civil investigative demands” in kickback cases involving labs and physician arrangements.
Krueger said as the years unfolds, it will become clearer how the latest revisions to the U.S. Department of Justice’s corporate enforcement policy, which applies to the criminal division, will play out with line prosecutors. “I’m also curious to see whether” DOJ’s civil division and U.S. attorneys’ offices will embrace the new mergers and acquisitions safe harbor, Krueger commented.
“There has always been a huge incentive for companies to cooperate,” Johnston added. “What’s different is that [Deputy Attorney General] Lisa Monaco and others have tried to make it crystal clear that cooperation will require providing incriminating evidence on insiders.”
