The head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Fraud Section said “compliance is a very big area of focus” for the agency, during a fireside chat at Day 2 of Compliance Week’s National Conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

This focus has been bolstered by the hiring of former compliance officers by the DOJ, said Glenn Leon, the former chief ethics and compliance officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise who joined the agency eight months ago. He said the DOJ’s ability to craft effective compliance policies and evaluate corporate compliance programs is being directed and guided by the former compliance professionals at the agency.

Those professionals include Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr., head of the Criminal Division, as well as five former compliance officers who are part of the Corporate Enforcement, Compliance, and Policy (CECP) Unit within the Fraud Section. The CECP Unit is led by Andrew Gentin, deputy chief of the Fraud Section, and includes Matt Galvin, who formerly served as global vice president, ethics and compliance at Anheuser Busch InBev.

As part of their responsibilities, members of the CECP Unit sit in on compliance program evaluation sessions for companies under investigation, help determine whether a monitorship and/or other conditions should be imposed as part of a settlement of white-collar crime, and aid DOJ attorneys with advice and support on the attributes of a good compliance program and how compliance programs can be pressure tested.