How Do the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Work?
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines (“FSG”) make clear that employers can be held liable for their employees’ illegal conduct. If employers take proactive steps to prevent unethical and illegal conduct through an effective ethics and compliance program (which includes training), employers can substantially mitigate potential fines and punishment for criminal violations: The potential fine range for a criminal conviction can be significantly reduced — in some cases up to 95 percent — if an organization can demonstrate that it had put in place an effective compliance and ethics program and that the criminal violation represented an aberration within an otherwise law-abiding community.2 The opposite side of this equation is that an absence of effective ethics and compliance programs can be used to increase fines and punishment.
