Trump pauses bribery laws enforcement
Order involves cases against US firms overseas
By: Josh Meyer
USA Today
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday [02/10/2025] evening pausing enforcement of a federal law that makes it a crime for U.S. businesses to bribe foreign officials, saying that the law puts companies at a disadvantage on the globe stage.
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Trump ordered newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately stop actions taken under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, including prosecutions of American individuals and companies who the Justice Department has charged with bribing foreign government officials in attempts to gain sound good on paper, but in practicality, it's a disaster," Trump said. "It means that if an American goes over to a foreign country and starts doing business over there, legally, legitimately or otherwise, it's almost a guaranteed investigation indictment, and nobody wants to do business with the Americans because of it."
..... He added: "It was a Jimmy Carter concept, and it sounds so good, but it's so bad. It hurts the country and many, many deals are unable to be made because nobody wants to do business."
..... The new order is aimed at restoring American economic competitiveness by having Bondi draw up "revised, resonate enforcement guidelines" for the Foreign corrupt Practices Act of 1977, according to a White House fact sheet obtain by USA Today.
..... "American national security depends on America and its companies gaining strategic commercial advantages around the world, and President Trump is stopping excessive, unpredictable FCPA enforcement that makes American companies less competitive," the fact sheet said.
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The White House fact sheet also said U.S. companies 'are harmed by FCPA over-enforcement because they are prohibited form negating in practice common among international competitors, crating an uneven playing field."
..... all current and past actions also will be reviewed, the White House said. And once Bondi issue new, relaxed guidelines, all "future FCPA investigations and enforcement actions will be governed by this new guidance and must be approved by the Attorney General," the White House said. The White House said that over time, FCPA interpretation and enforcement by U.S. prosecutors "has broadened, imposing a growing cost on our Nation's economy."
..... In 2024, it said, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission field 26 FCPA-related enforcement actions, and at least 31 companies were under investigation by year's end. Over the past decade, the White House said, there has been an average of 36 FCPA-related enforcement actions per year, "draining resources from both American business and law enforcement."
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"President Trump is commuted to prioritizing American economic and security interest and ensuring U.S. businesses have the tools OT succeed globally," it said Trump's order "diminishes - and could pave the way for completely elimination - the crown jewel in the U.S.'s fight against global corruption.
..... Since it was passed in 1977, Kalman said, the FCPA has not only allowed the Justice Department to prosecute individuals and companies that pay bribes to foreign officials but also forced firms to establish strict accounting requirements and controls in order to prevent them form covering up such crimes. As such, he said, it has become "a model law that has been emulated across the world."
..... "The FCPA heps make American companies and the "Made in America' brand stronger and more attractive," Kalman said, "by proving that American goods and services are sought after because of their merit - not simply because they out-bribed their competition."
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Trump weighed trying to scrap the law entirely during his first term after hearing complaints from U.S. companies, Bloomberg reported in 2020. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opposed the proposal.
..... Bondi also deemphasized investigations and prosecutions of U.S. companies for FCPA violations in one of 14 DOJ directives she issued on February 5 [2025] her first full day on the job.
..... The new directive will have significant ripple effects within international legal circles - and at the Justice Department and FBI, which often spends years investigating and prosecuting such cases or negotiation plea agreements and deferred prosecution agreements.
..... "This significantly strengthens the hand of companies with ongoing FCPA investigations," Trump's former deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, told USA Today late Monday. [02/10/2025] As a prosecutor and deputy AG, Rosenstein was a longtime champion of aggressive FCPA enforcement.
..... Rosenstien said that Trump begun toling back FCPA eight years ago, by granting credit to companies for cooperation with investigation and by stopping the practice of "piling on with penalties from multiple U.S. and foreign enforcement agencies."
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"This new policy," he added, "reflects President Trump's longstanding concern about American companies losing business to foreign companies that can pay bribes without fear of prosecutions."
..... Bondi released her new directive regarding FCPA in a memo titled "Total elimination of Cartels and Transnational criminal Organizations."
..... In it, "AG Bondi has both shifted the focus of FCPA prosecutions away form traditional corporate subjects and expanded the scope of prosecutors who can initiate certain categories of FCPA cases," according to an analysis by the Foley Hoag law firm's White Collar Law and Investigation practice.
..... It said the gist of Bondi's memo was that "the DOJ Criminal Division's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit shall prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and TCOs, and shift focus away from investigation and cases that do not involve such a connection.
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other words, the analysis said, the FCPA Unit has been directed to "shift focus away" from the corporate cases that have defined much of its recent work," transnational criminal organizations.