The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division has issued a directive requiring prosecutors to approach complex fraud cases across the department’s traditional subject-matter lines.
Directive 26-13, released Thursday, calls for coordinated use of tax, securities, consumer-protection and cybercrime authorities. The department describes the change as an operational shift intended to identify the full structure of a scheme rather than assign a case to a single enforcement silo.
The memorandum builds on recent guidance concerning corporate enforcement and prosecutorial priorities. It directs lawyers to consider disruption tools as well as conventional criminal charges, including asset restraint, civil remedies, parallel proceedings and early coordination with investigative agencies. The announced policy does not alter statutory elements, burdens of proof or defendants’ procedural rights.
Its significance will depend on implementation: charging choices remain case-specific, and a department directive does not itself create a private right or a new offence. Even so, the document gives companies and defence lawyers a clearer view of how the new division intends to assemble investigations that cross financial, technological and consumer markets.
Read the Justice Department directive announcement
