By Trevor McFadden and William Devaney ( June 9, 2015, 10:34 AM EDT) -- In an unlikely "about-face" from years of prior practice, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission recently publicly cautioned companies against unnecessarily prolonging or expanding internal bribery investigations. The statements, coming from the head of the DOJ's Criminal Division and the SEC's enforcement chief, were made at PLI's FCPA and International Anti-Corruption Conference in New York. The DOJ's Leslie Caldwell said that some companies' "overly broad and needlessly costly investigations" had actually impeded the DOJ's efforts. Andrew Ceresney from the SEC emphasized that the size and scope of an internal investigation were up to the company. Caldwell underscored these points in a subsequent appearance, opining that a good internal investigation should determine the scope of the matter at hand, as well as the compliance or cultural shortfalls that led to the problem....