The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ANTITRUST CRIMINAL PENALTY ENHANCEMENT AND REFORM ACT OF 2004 EXTENSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E882-E883 on May 19, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ANTITRUST CRIMINAL PENALTY ENHANCEMENT AND REFORM ACT OF 2004 EXTENSION
______
HON. HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce legislation that extends expiring provisions of the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004 and reviews its efficacy. I am pleased to have as cosponsor of this bill the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, Jr.
ACPERA promotes the detection and prosecution of illegal cartel behavior by giving participants in a price-fixing cartel powerful incentives to report the cartel to the Justice Department and cooperate in its prosecution.
Cartel violations are some of the worst crimes perpetrated on the American consumer, yet they are too often crimes we cannot see, as all the criminal activity takes place in secret meetings behind closed doors.
Price-fixing cartels can go undetected for years, possibly forever. With hundreds of millions (or even billions) of dollars worth of unlawful profits at stake, these criminal cartels are very effective at finding ways to keep their actions secret.
In August 1993, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division revised its corporate leniency program. Designed to destabilize these cartels, the program offered amnesty from criminal prosecution for companies and their executives involved in these conspiracies if they were the first of the conspirators (and not the ringleader) to reach out to the DOJ's Antitrust Division and fully cooperate with its criminal investigation.
But there was still a disincentive for cartel participants to come forward, because they remained liable for treble damages and joint and several liability in accompanying civil litigation.
Five years ago, Congress gave the Justice Department's Antitrust Division a new weapon to attack this disincentive head-on. ACPERA addressed this shortcoming in the leniency program by also limiting the cooperating party's exposure to liability in related civil litigation.
ACPERA empowers the Justice Department to limit the civil liability of a cooperating party to single damages. The remaining co-
conspirators, however, remain jointly and severally liable for all damages.
In this way, the Act strikes a carefully-crafted balance, encouraging the cartel members to turn on each other, while ensuring full compensation to the victims.
The positive impact of this law cannot be overstated. ACPERA aided the Antitrust Division in obtaining just over $1 billion in criminal fines in Fiscal Year 2009.
Last year, confronted with the expiration of key provisions of ACPERA, I sponsored a bipartisan 1-year extension of the statute. We solicited input from a number of parties, including the Department of Justice, the American Bar Association, noted academics such as William Kovacic, and representatives of civil litigants, leniency applicants, and cartel whistleblowers.
As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, I want to ensure that the Justice Department has all the tools it needs to continue its excellent work protecting consumers against price-fixing cartels.
During this process, I heard a number of suggestions for how to improve ACPERA's effectiveness. The legislation I introduce today incorporates a number of these suggestions, and also commissions the Government Accountability Office to perform a 1-year study to examine several others.
Again, I thank Chairman Conyers for joining me as cosponsor of this important legislation, and I look forward to working with our colleagues in the other body to reauthorize this very important program.
____________________
