Trump pauses enforcement of foreign bribery ban
President Trump has signed an executive order to direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop enforcing a law that prevents bribery towards foreign government officials.
The order, signed on Monday, pauses enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which is directed towards American businesses and foreign firms. The order argues that the act had been “stretched beyond proper bounds and abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States.”
“It sounds good on paper, but in practicality, it's a disaster,” Trump said in the Oval Office, referring to FCPA. “It means that if an American goes over to a foreign country and starts doing business over there, legally, legitimately or otherwise, it's almost a guaranteed investigation indictment, and nobody wants to do business with the Americans because of it.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi was directed, through the order, to review the FCPA for 180 days and lay out new guidelines for enforcing it.
The FCPA is a 1977 law that stopped “certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business,” according to DOJ. It originally applied to Americans and certain foreign issuers of securities and in 1998 expanded to apply to foreign firms.
“It was a Jimmy Carter concept, and it sounds so good, but it's so bad. It hurts the country and many, many deals are unable to be made because nobody wants to do business,” Trump said on Monday.
The DOJ took action in 24 cases related to FCPA in 2024 and 17 in 2023, CNBC reported.
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