Trump Bans Punishing Americans for Bribery of Foreign Officials: He Says It's Temporary

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 10 suspending a federal law that makes it a crime for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials. Trump said the law puts companies at a disadvantage on the global stage, writes USA Today.

Trump has ordered newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately halt actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including prosecutions of American individuals and companies charged by the Justice Department with bribing foreign officials to do business in other countries.

"It looks good on paper, but in practice it's a disaster," Trump said. "That means if an American goes to another country and does business there, legally or illegally, he's almost guaranteed to be investigated and indicted. No one wants to do business with Americans because of that."

He went on to say, "It was Jimmy Carter's idea, which sounds good in words, but it's bad in practice. It's hurting the country, and a lot of deals can't get done because no one wants to do business."

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According to a White House fact sheet, the new order is aimed at restoring the competitiveness of the American economy.

"America's national security depends on the United States and its companies achieving strategic commercial advantages around the world. President Trump is ending enforcement of the FCPA, which makes American companies less competitive," the bulletin says.

In addition, the document says that American companies "suffer because they are prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, which creates an uneven playing field."

The White House said all current and past FCPA actions will be reviewed. Once Bondi issues new, more lenient guidelines, all “future FCPA investigations and enforcement actions will be subject to this new guidance and will require approval by the Attorney General.”

The White House noted that over time, U.S. prosecutors' interpretation and enforcement of the FCPA has expanded, "at increasing costs to our nation's economy."

In 2024, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed 26 FCPA-related lawsuits, according to the White House. At least 31 companies were under investigation by year’s end. Over the past decade, an average of 36 FCPA cases have been filed each year, according to the White House, “diverting resources from both American businesses and law enforcement.”

"President Trump is committed to putting America's economic and national interests first and ensuring American companies have the tools to succeed globally," the statement said.

"Model Law" and "Pearl of Great Price"

Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International US, said Trump's order could destroy "a precious jewel of the US fight against global corruption."

Kalman noted that since the FCPA was passed in 1977, the law has allowed the Justice Department to prosecute individuals and businesses for bribing foreign officials and has required companies to implement strict accounting and control requirements to prevent such crimes from being concealed. He said the law has become “a model and has been adopted in other countries.”

"The FCPA helps make American companies and the 'Made in America' brand stronger and more attractive because it proves that American goods and services are sought after for their own merits, not simply because a company bribed local officials," Kalman said.

During his first term, Trump considered repealing the law entirely after complaints from U.S. companies, according to a 2020 Bloomberg report. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opposed the proposal.

Bondi de-prioritized investigations and prosecutions of U.S. companies for FCPA violations in one of 14 Justice Department directives she issued Feb. 5.

The new directive will have a significant impact on the international legal community, as well as the Justice Department and the FBI, which often spend years investigating such cases or reaching plea agreements and deferred prosecutions.

“This greatly strengthens the hand of companies that are under FCPA investigation,” Rod Rosenstein, a former deputy attorney general under Trump, said on Feb. 10. As a prosecutor and deputy attorney general, he was a longtime advocate for robust FCPA enforcement.

Rosenstein noted that Trump began weakening the FCPA eight years ago by giving companies incentives for cooperating in investigations and ending the practice of "piling up fines from multiple U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies."

“This new policy,” he added, “reflects President Trump’s long-standing concern that American companies are losing business to foreign companies that can pay bribes without fear of prosecution.”

One of the Justice Department's most significant successes was the announcement on October 16 — three weeks before Trump won the election — that Virginia-based defense contractor Raytheon Company would pay more than $950 million to settle charges of foreign bribery and related offenses in a scheme to help foreign governments acquire PATRIOT missile defense systems and operate and maintain the radar system.

In one scheme, Raytheon conducted a campaign between 2012 and 2016 to “bribery a high-ranking official” in the Qatari military “to assist Raytheon in obtaining and retaining contracts” with the country, according to the Justice Department, based on admissions and court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

"We will continue to pursue justice in the fight against corruption," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at the time.

"Raytheon's criminal scheme to defraud the U.S. government in connection with these contracts undermines the public trust and harms the Department of Defense, legitimate companies, and the American taxpayer," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"Today's decisions, totaling nearly $1 billion in criminal and civil penalties, demonstrate the Criminal Division's ability to resolve the most significant and complex white-collar crime cases across a variety of industries," Driscoll said.

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What the Justice Department's order says

Bondi presented her new FCPA directive in a memorandum titled "Total Dismantling of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations."

According to an analysis by law firm Foley Hoag, in the document, "Attorney General Bondi shifted the focus of FCPA investigations away from traditional corporate entities and expanded the range of prosecutors who can bring certain categories of FCPA cases."

The document states that the gist of the Bondi memo is that "the Justice Department's Criminal Division, which administers the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, should prioritize investigations involving foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal activity of cartels and transnational criminal organizations."

In other words, the FCPA unit is being instructed to "shift its focus" away from the corporate cases that have made up much of its work in recent years, except when such cases involve cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

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