DOJ Foreign-Bribery Probes Resume With Focus on US Interests (1)

The Justice Department will resume investigations and prosecutions into bribes that companies or individuals pay to foreign governments or other entities with a renewed focus on protecting US businesses and industries.

A new directive issued Tuesday by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche resumes investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after they were halted by President Donald Trump when he took office. Trump directed the Justice Department to conduct a review and make changes to how they’re conducted.

Under the new directive, investigations and prosecutions into foreign bribery will resume with a focus on several particular areas, such as criminal conduct and money laundering linked to the activities of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

Prosecutors also will focus on bribery cases that disadvantage US companies and key industries like defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure, according to the four-page memo.

“Companies that bribe foreign officials to obtain business can put their law-abiding competitors, including US companies, at a serious economic disadvantage,” Blanche wrote. “By bribing foreign officials to obtain lucrative contracts and illicit profits — at times hundreds of millions of dollars — corrupt competitors skew markets and disadvantage law-abiding US companies and others for many years.”

The new directive was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

Read More: Trump’s Bribery-Law Order Starts Upending Criminal Cases

After Trump initially questioned how the FCPA was being enforced, there were concerns about how the department would handle prosecutions after some cases were delayed and another against two former executives at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. was dropped earlier this year.

As part of its review, the department closed some existing foreign bribery cases but is proceeding with others by applying the criteria set forth in the guidelines, said Matthew Galeotti, acting head of the department’s criminal division.

“The through-line in these guidelines is that they require the vindication of US interests,” Galeotti said Tuesday at an event in New York hosted by the American Conference Institute.

“In plain terms, it’s conduct that genuinely impacts the United States or the American people,” he said. “Conduct that does not implicate US interests should be left to our foreign counterparts or appropriate regulators.”

On another front, Galeotti said the department is “nearing the end” of a review into the use of corporate monitors, which are imposed on companies as part of settlement agreements.

“Monitors are meant to be a temporary bridge and accountability measure to move a company quickly and efficiently towards full compliance,” he said.

(Updates with additional comment starting in the eighth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Anthony Aarons

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