FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) - News and Updates

Background Information about the FCPA

Generally, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (“FCPA” or the “Act”) prohibits U.S. companies, their subsidiaries, as well as their officers, directors, employees, and agents from bribing “foreign officials” and also requires U.S. companies that issue debt or equity to maintain internal accounting controls and to keep books and records that accurately reflect all transactions.

Both the anti-bribery and the record-keeping and internal accounting controls provisions apply to worldwide operations. The FCPA is enforced jointly by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

U.S. Department of Justice FCPA Information

U.S. Department of Justice: Lay-Persons’ Guide to the FCPA

U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission

TRACE International, Inc. TRACE is a non-profit membership organization that provides several core services and products, including: due diligence reports on commercial intermediaries; model compliance policies; an online Resource Center with foreign local law summaries, including guidelines on gifts and hospitality; in-person and online anti-bribery training; and research on corporate best practices. TRACE was founded to achieve economies of scale and set a common standard for two shared elements of anti-bribery compliance: due diligence reviews and anti-bribery training for business intermediaries and company employees based around the world.

BRIBEline a secure and anonymous place to report a bribe. BRIBEline’s purpose is to collect information about the official or quasi-official entities - governments, international organizations, security forces, state-owned enterprises, etc. - around the world that solicit bribes. Aggregate information will be made public to shine a spotlight on trouble spots so that they might be improved, and to allow companies to better manage risk. Tiếng Việt - Vietnamese.

Dow Jones Introduces First Global Anti-Corruption Database to Verify Employee Actions Dow Jones Anti-Corruption was developed following the request of a consortium of U.S. financial institutions which approached Dow Jones in 2007 to build a solution for managing exposure from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption regulations. The institutions were subscribers of the Dow Jones Watchlist service (formerly Factiva Public Figures & Associates) and believed Dow Jones had the experience, resources and capability to develop a truly global anti-corruption solution.

The FCPA Blog News and Views About The United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. There are as many as 70 investigations ongoing, not including “dozens of internal company probes that haven’t been reported to the government [yet], and may never be.”