Key Takeaways
- Voluntary self-disclosure under DOJ’s new Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) can result in a full declination of criminal charges, as demonstrated by the Campus Eye resolution, the first healthcare fraud declination under the policy.
- Companies that maintain robust compliance programs, conduct timely internal investigations, and fully cooperate with federal investigators are best positioned to avoid criminal prosecution, even when employees engage in serious misconduct.
- DOJ continues to prioritize individual accountability over corporate prosecution. On the same day it declined charges against Campus Eye, DOJ announced an indictment against the founder of a related optometry practice and ambulatory surgery center on charges of healthcare fraud, kickbacks, and conspiracy.
On July 29, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first declination of criminal charges against a healthcare company under the new Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (CEP). The declination was announced by DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, which was established in April 2026 to focus on prosecuting fraud involving government programs and taxpayer dollars.
What Is the DOJ Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP)?
The CEP, which was unveiled in March, provides companies with a roadmap for avoiding criminal prosecution. Specifically, DOJ will decline to prosecute companies that voluntarily disclose misconduct, cooperate fully with investigators, and promptly remediate wrongdoing, assuming that other aggravating factors are not present.
New Jersey-based Campus Eye Management LLC and its parent company, Campus Eye Management Holdings LLC (collectively, “Campus Eye”), had been under investigation for healthcare fraud, illegal kickbacks and bribes, and conspiracy, following Campus Eye’s voluntary self-disclosure of related misconduct. In declining to pursue criminal charges against Campus Eye, DOJ cited the company’s timely and voluntary self-disclosure, full and proactive cooperation in the investigation, and timely and appropriate remediation, including an internal review of relevant policies and improvements to its compliance program. As a condition of the declination, Campus Eye agreed to continue cooperating in the ongoing investigation and to pay $1,000,000 in victim compensation.
Individual Prosecution Despite Corporate Declination
Notably, on the same day DOJ announced the declination, it released a seven-count criminal indictment against E. Bruce DiDonato, the founder of an optometry practice and ambulatory surgery center for which Campus Eye provided services. The indictment alleges that DiDonato conspired with others to order and bill for unnecessary diagnostic eye tests for patients. The indictment alleges further that DiDonato paid kickbacks and bribes to other ophthalmologists in exchange for referrals of patients requiring eye surgery. According to the indictment, DiDonato subjected those patients to unnecessary or duplicative testing, the results of which he neither reviewed nor relied upon in providing care. The scheme allegedly occurred from 2015 through March 2023 and resulted in the submission of approximately $3.4 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid approximately $1 million.
The Campus Eye declination reinforces DOJ’s stated intent to encourage companies to avoid criminal prosecution by voluntarily disclosing wrongdoing and cooperating fully with federal investigators. Since announcing the policy, DOJ has invoked the CEP across multiple enforcement contexts. Last month, the National Security Division announced its first CEP declination after Robert Bosch GmbH self-disclosed unlawful exports of sensor products and software and agreed to disgorge over $11 million in profits. And in March, shortly after announcing the CEP, the DOJ resolved a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation into Balt SAS, a French medical device company, after Balt self-disclosed a bribery scheme involving payments to a physician at a French state-owned hospital; the DOJ separately indicted a responsible executive and an outside sales consultant. The Campus Eye declination signals that DOJ intends to apply CEP in the healthcare fraud context as well.
Key Compliance Takeaways: What Should Companies Do Now?
These declinations further illustrate that the CEP offers significant benefits for companies with robust compliance programs and internal controls capable of catching misconduct early, and promptly self-reporting and remediating potential criminal conduct. They also underscore that DOJ is primarily interested in prosecuting individual wrongdoers, not companies, in the corporate enforcement context. Company leadership should take these outcomes into consideration when navigating similar issues.
If you have any questions about the CEP or any related issues, please contact the authors.