When the U.S. Department of Justice announced a six-month enforcement pause of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in February, many speculated that the risks posed by bribery had been lowered. So when the DOJ said last week that it would resume launching FCPA investigations, it may just seem like a return to the status quo.
But that’s not the case, experts say.
The Department of Justice has ended its six-month FCPA enforcement pause, closed half its legacy bribery cases, and will now pursue foreign bribery probes aligned with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Compliance is increasingly in the spotlight as companies are tackling everything from artificial intelligence and other new technologies to risk management and mitigation. But it’s soft skills of communication and relationship building that are becoming the most critical tools for success.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a war with unusual implications: The U.S. has stepped up sanctions and export controls. But companies are increasingly learning that the most seemingly innocuous products can find themselves in “dual use,” as a product for daily life and a product for war. A gyroscope or a more advanced GPS chip might help improve a smartphone’s capabilities, but they can also help to guide a missile.
ESG is no longer in vogue. But its issues still are.
Almost none of the nearly 200 attendees at Compliance Week’s Third Party Management summit this week said they’re currently working on ESG when informally surveyed. The show-of-hands results marked a dramatic reversal from even just a couple years ago, surprising even attendees in the room.
To both clean up corporate behaviour and rack up its own enforcement record, the UK’s anti-bribery agency has seemingly largely guaranteed companies a pass from prosecution if they spill the beans on their misconduct. There’s only one problem: experts believe businesses may still stand a better outcome if they front it out rather than self-report and hope for a deal.
The Department of Justice has ended another FCPA-related compliance action more than a year early. This scaling back of regulatory enforcement by the federal government has been a growing trend since the start of the Trump administration.
Like never before in modern American history, ethics and compliance are under attack.
The U.S. Department of Justice ended two compliance monitorships on Glencore International more than a year early, monitorships imposed in 2022 after the company was convicted of paying bribes and manipulating commodities markets.
While executives and boards will never conclude that bribery is a legitimate way of doing business, understandably many have questions about how to direct their FCPA compliance program efforts and resources, write Iris Bennett and Claire Rajan, partners at law firm Steptoe.
