What constitutes a payment under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)?
As the Department of Justice points out succinctly in its brochure of the FCPA, “[t]he FCPA prohibits paying, offering, promising to pay (or authorizing to pay or offer) money or anything of value.” The FCPA does not define the term “anything of value,” nor is there any legislative history or case law that defines exactly what this term means. The courts, however, are likely to interpret the phrase broadly and look at the subjective value the defendant placed on the payment.
