The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear a landmark case that would have helped clarify the definition of “foreign official” under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The decision to deny the cert petition effectively upholds the government’s broad view of who qualifies as a foreign official under the FCPA—at least, for now.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...