DOJ Resolves First Corporate FCPA Case Following Enforcement Pause With Declination to Prosecute Liberty Mutual

On August 7, 2025, in the first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) corporate resolution under the current Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), together with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, announced their agreement to decline prosecution of Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (“Liberty Mutual” or the “Company”) under the FCPA (the “Declination”),[1] The Government issued the Declination despite evidence that the Company’s Indian subsidiary had paid bribes to foreign officials in exchange for customer referrals to the subsidiary’s insurance products. The DOJ grounded its decision on the declination criteria set forth in the Criminal Division’s updated Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (the “CEP”), including the Company’s timely and voluntary self-disclosure, cooperation with the Government, acceptance of responsibility and appropriate remediation, improvements to its compliance program and internal controls, and agreement to disgorge approximately $4.7 million in ill-gotten gains, along with the absence of aggravating circumstances.

The Enforcement Landscape

The Declination follows the May 2025 updates to the CEP,[2] which seek to provide a streamlined roadmap of the DOJ’s approach to declinations.[3] In contrast to prior versions of the CEP, which only offered companies the presumption that they would receive a declination, the 2025 version provides that the DOJ “will decline to prosecute” companies so long as the following criteria are satisfied: 

• Voluntarily Disclosure: The company must voluntarily disclose the misconduct to the DOJ before an imminent threat of disclosure or government investigation.
• Cooperation: The company must fully and proactively cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation, including by providing all relevant, non-privileged facts and evidence about all individuals involved in or responsible for the misconduct at issue and by making individuals available for interviews.
• Remediation: The company must remediate the misconduct, including by conducting a root-cause analysis, disciplining responsible employees, and enhancing compliance programs.
• No Aggravating Circumstances: There must be no aggravating circumstances related to the nature and seriousness of the offense, pervasiveness of the misconduct, or recent similar criminal resolutions.
• Disgorgement: The company must agree to disgorge all ill-gotten gains resulting from the misconduct.

The Declination also follows the DOJ’s June 2025 rollout of the FCPA enforcement guidelines (the “FCPA Guidelines”),[4] which established the DOJ’s go-forward evaluation criteria for FCPA actions and brought to an end a four-month enforcement pause triggered by the Administration’s February 10, 2025 Executive Order Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security (the “FCPA Order”).[5] The FCPA Guidelines suggest a more restrained “America-first” approach to enforcement and a prioritization of future bribery cases that implicate U.S. competitiveness, national security, or transnational criminal organizations (“TCOs”) or cartels.

The Liberty Mutual Declination

After a nearly eight-month period without corporate FCPA resolutions and prosecutions, the Declination reveals that DOJ leadership is once again reviewing and approving such resolutions. The Declination – which tracks with the CEP path-to-a-declination guidance – also offers some assurances to companies that uncover FCPA misconduct and are assessing the benefits of a voluntary self-disclosure, including the possibility of avoiding criminal prosecution or the burdens of deferred prosecution or non-prosecution agreements.

Notably, the matter has no obvious links to the enforcement priorities identified in the FCPA Guidelines, including U.S. competitiveness, national security, or TCOs/cartels. The DOJ’s decision to issue the Declination suggests that, although such links may be an aggravating factor in deciding whether to pursue an investigation or bring a prosecution, their import in the resolution phase remains to be seen.

The Declination

As explained in the Declination, the DOJ’s investigation found that, between approximately 2017 and 2022, the Company’s Indian subsidiary, Liberty General Insurance (“LGI”), paid approximately $1.47 million in bribes to officials at six state-owned banks in India in exchange for those banks referring bank customers to LGI’s insurance products. According to the Declination, certain LGI employees took steps to conceal the true nature of the payments, including by classifying the bribes as marketing expenses and by using third-party intermediaries to make those payments.[6]

LGI’s bribery scheme allegedly generated an estimated $9.2 million in revenue,[7] including $4.7 million in profits.[8] Liberty Mutual agreed to disgorge all of those profits in connection with the Declination.[9] 

The DOJ’s decision not to prosecute Liberty Mutual was based on the CEP declination criteria, and the version that existed at the time of the insurer’s March 2024 voluntary disclosure was similar to the May 2025 CEP revisions. As explained in the Declination, Liberty Mutual satisfied all five requirements:

• Self-Reporting: the Company voluntarily disclosed the conduct to the DOJ in March 2024 during an ongoing internal investigation.[10] The 2025 CEP provides for disclosure at the “earliest possible time, even when a company has not yet completed an internal investigation”[11] while the predecessor version of the CEP provided for self-disclosure “immediately upon the company becoming aware of the allegation of misconduct.”
• Cooperation: the Company’s cooperation is characterized as “full and proactive,” the company was recognized for providing “information regarding the individuals involved,” and the Company agreed to continue to cooperate with “any ongoing Government investigations and any prosecutions that have resulted or might result in the future.”[12]
• Remediation: the Company was credited for timely and appropriate remediation, including its “early and fulsome acceptance of responsibility, its thorough and systematic root-cause analysis, and [its] separation from personnel involved in the misconduct.” The DOJ also cited “significant improvements to [the Company’s] compliance program and internal controls” to prevent future misconduct, including “enhanced vetting, monitoring, and oversight of payments to third parties throughout its global markets, structural reorganization coupled with increased legal and compliance resources, and the implementation of enhanced compliance policies, including with respect to use of social media and ephemeral messaging applications for business purposes.”[13]
• Aggravating Circumstances: the Declination specifically noted the “absence of aggravating circumstances.”[14]
• Disgorgement: the Company agreed to disgorge nearly $4.7 million in ill-gotten gains.

Like the declinations that preceded it, the Liberty Mutual Declination leaves the door open for individual prosecution, cautioning the insurer that the resolution does not protect any individuals from enforcement actions. The DOJ also reserves the right to reopen the inquiry if it learns information that changes its assessment of the factors described above.

Broader Enforcement Trends

Between 2015 and the present, the DOJ has entered into 16 corporate FCPA resolutions involving misconduct in India.[15] These actions have spanned multiple sectors, including aviation, engineering retail, food/beverage, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, and technology, suggesting that bribery risks are widespread in the country and not endemic to a particular industry. Since 2015, only two other countries – China and Brazil – have been the location of more alleged FCPA misconduct resulting in corporate resolutions.[16]

Since 2012, U.S. regulators have entered into at least five resolutions with insurance companies and reinsurance companies, including three declinations, one cease-and-desist order, and one deferred prosecution agreement:

• In 2012, German insurance and financial services firm Allianz SE (“Allianz”) agreed to pay the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission $12.3 million to resolve allegations that between 2001 and 2008, employees of Allianz’s Indonesian majority-owned subsidiary made illegal payments to Indonesian officials in order to secure government insurance contracts. In its cease-and-desist order, the SEC concluded that Allianz lacked adequate internal controls to detect and prevent the wrongful payments and improper accounting.[17]
• In 2018, the DOJ issued a declination to the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited to resolve allegations that approximately $36,000 in bribes was paid to a Barbadian government official in exchange for insurance contracts. As part of the terms of the declination, the insurance company agreed to disgorge approximately $94,000 in ill-gotten gains.[18]
• In 2022, the DOJ issued a declination to Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Holdings Ltd. to resolve allegations that approximately $3.2 million in bribes were paid to Ecuadorian government officials in exchange for obtaining and retaining contracts with a state-owned and -controlled surety company. As part of the terms of the declination, the insurance broker agreed to disgorge approximately $29 million in ill-gotten gains.[19]
• In 2023, Tysers Brokers Limited and H.W. Wood Limited entered into three-year deferred prosecution agreements with the DOJ to resolve allegations that the two U.K.-based reinsurance brokers violated the FCPA by participating in a corrupt scheme to pay bribes to Ecuadorian government officials in exchange for obtaining and retaining reinsurance business with state-owned insurance companies. As part of the resolution, the two reinsurance brokers agreed to pay approximately $71 million.[20]
• In 2025, the DOJ issued a declination to Liberty Mutual (detailed above).

Like the declination issued under the latest version of the CEP and FCPA Guidelines, the two declinations the DOJ issued to insurance companies prior to 2025 similarly involved voluntary self-disclosures, “full and proactive” cooperation, timely and appropriate remediation, and a willingness to disgorge ill-gotten gains. While the declination issued to Liberty Mutual explicitly lists the absence of aggravating circumstances as a standalone factor, the two prior declinations do not reference the presence nor absence of aggravating circumstances, despite earlier versions of the CEP noting that aggravating circumstances are considered.

Key Takeaways

The Declination marks the first FCPA resolution of the current Administration and can serve as guidance to companies weighing the risks and benefits of a voluntary disclosure. Companies that suspect a potential FCPA violation should consult their legal advisors and consider taking certain steps to position themselves for a potential declination, should they choose to voluntarily disclose, or for a more favorable outcome should the matter come under investigation, including:

• Commencing an internal investigation to identify the nature and scope of the misconduct.
• Responding with swift and appropriate remediation to prevent future misconduct.
• Taking appropriate disciplinary action, which could include separation of employees involved in the misconduct, but should balance the degree of disciplinary action with the need to keep witnesses available to the DOJ.
• Strengthening the company’s compliance program and internal controls by assessing weaknesses on an ongoing basis and making improvements where appropriate.

In light of the updated CEP and FCPA Guidelines, companies may view the Declination as an example of how the declination evaluation process will operate in practice under the Administration and as encouragement for companies that identify FCPA exposure and want to pursue a more favorable resolution.

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[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Declination Letter re Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (Aug. 7, 2025), available here (the “Declination Letter”).

[2] Paul, Weiss, DOJ Announces New Corporate and White-Collar Enforcement Policies and Priorities (May 15, 2025), available here.

[3] U.S. Department of Justice, 9–47.120, Criminal Division Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (May 12, 2025), available here ( “CEP” or “2025 CEP”).

[4] U.S. Department of Justice, Memorandum, Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) at 1–2 (June 9, 2025), available here (the “Guidelines” or “FCPA Guidelines”); Paul, Weiss, DOJ FCPA Guidelines End the Enforcement Pause and Shift Focus to U.S. Interests (June 12, 2025), available here.

[5] The White House, Executive Order 14209, Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security (Feb. 10, 2025), available here (the “FCPA Order”).

[6] Declination Letter at 2.

[7] The global insurance company’s total revenue topped $50 billion in 2024.

[8] Id.

[9] Liberty Mutual Insurance, Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results (Mar. 5, 2025), available here.

[10] Declination Letter at 2.

[11] CEP at App. B.

[12] Declination Letter at 2.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Stanford Law School Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Clearinghouse, available here.

[16] Id.

[17] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Press Release, SEC Charges Germany-Based Allianz SE with FCPA Violations (Dec. 17, 2012), available here.

[18] U.S. Department of Justice, Press Release, Former Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice President of Barbadian Insurance Company Charged with Laundering Bribes to Former Minister of Industry of Barbados (January 28, 2019), available here.

[19] U.S. Department of Justice, Declination Letter re Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Holdings Ltd. (March 18, 2025), available here.

[20] U.S. Department of Justice, Press Release, British Reinsurance Brokers Resolve Bribery Investigations (November 20, 2023), available here.