Regulatory Enforcement & Investigations

In an increasingly regulated environment, businesses continue to get inquiries — formal and informal — from government agencies at the municipal, state and federal level.  Sometimes these inquiries are quickly resolved with a letter or meeting and sometimes they evolve into a full blown, white collar, investigation that can divert time, resources and attention away from other business matters.  The lawyers at Peters Brovner have had success in convincing government regulators and others that a full-blown investigation is not warranted.  They will also  manage formal investigations when they cannot be avoided.  In either situation, their experience as senior officials in government investigative agencies helps them navigate the process and provide insightful guidance to clients.

Anti-Corruption Compliance and Enforcement

Mark Peters and Lesley Brovner have decades of experience working in compliance and enforcement as well as in conducting investigations.  From 2014 through 2018 they served as Commissioner and First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Investigation, New York City’s Inspector General.  At DOI, they had jurisdiction to investigate every New York City agency, officer, elected official or employee of the City, as well as those who do business with or receive benefits from the City.   In their time at DOI Peters & Brovner investigated hundreds of regulatory matters, many of which resulted in prosecution.  They also issued over 50 reports into City agencies and authorities, including the NYPD, Department of Buildings (DOB), and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and were responsible for creating compliance plans for City agencies that included preventive controls and operational reforms to improve the way the City runs.

In private practice, we will design an Anti-corruption compliance program targeted to your specific needs and designed to identify and address corruption risks that may arise based on business activities.  We will also help draft and review employee handbooks to ensure that they are thorough and cover all of the topics that could make a company vulnerable to government investigation and design and review compliance training programs and implementation.

Internal Investigations and Monitoring

The attorneys at Peters Brovner LLP draw on their years of experience conducting complex investigations, including their time serving in governmental positions at New York City’s Department of Investigation and at the New York State Office of the Attorney General and the New York State Liquidation Bureau, an arm of the Department of Financial Services.

Peters Brovner conducts investigations into employee misconduct as well as broader systemic failures to follow either government regulations or internal policies. Such investigations can help mitigate risk and strengthen a company’s anti-corruption policies.

Internal investigations are procedures that review certain aspects of the conduct of an organization or employees of that organization.  It is important for companies to complete their due diligence and determine whether external laws or regulations or internal policies have been violated, discipline wrongdoers, make any necessary changes to internal compliance policies, and ensure that they are in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations moving forward.

Our internal investigative steps may include the following steps:

• Background and computer-assisted research on the entity involved;
• Collection and review of written documents;
• Interviews of employees and other witnesses;
• Forensic accounting review;
• Review of computer systems;
• Creation of a compliance plan going forward;
• Responding to government regulators and prosecutors if necessary;
• Responding to, or initiating, civil litigation if necessary.