What is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)?
In 1977, Congress enacted the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) to criminalize illicit payments to foreign public officials by U.S. businesses and individuals.17 The FCPA has two basic sets of provisions: (a) the anti-bribery provisions, which prohibit domestic and foreign companies and U.S. citizens and aliens from paying anything of value to any foreign official, government employee, officers of a public international organization, foreign political party or candidate, or any agent of those entities, if the purpose is to cause the payee to act, or refrain for acting, in a way to assist the company in obtaining or retaining business; and (b) the accounting provisions, which impose certain accounting and record-keeping requirements on publicly traded companies.18 Based on guidelines issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, federal courts are required to take into account the existence or absence of effective corporate compliance programs when handing down criminal sanctions w
