Amendments to Organisational Sentencing Guidelines Take Effect

On November 1, 2010, the most recent amendments to the US Sentencing Guidelines Manual came into effect. The amendments, which were promulgated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission and submitted to Congress, do not reflect a sea change in the way in which corporations are evaluated or sentenced under Chapter 8 of the guidelines. However, they do provide important guidance to corporations in designing and evaluating the effectiveness of corporate compliance and ethics programmes. More specifically, the amendments reward companies that provide their chief compliance officers with direct reporting responsibility to the governing authority of the company, such as the board of directors, or a sub-group thereof, such as the audit committee. The amendments also promote self-reporting to, and cooperation with, the government as examples of effective remedial measures taken by companies when responding to criminal conduct.

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