A Year Later – What Did the Pause on FCPA Enforcement Do?

(Richard Nephew – Just Security) On Feb. 25, 2025, Foreign Affairs published my piece on the Trump administration’s decision to suspend the implementation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The Trump administration defended the decision as part of a broad effort to reprioritize and streamline work at the Department of Justice. But, for many of us who had worked in the U.S. government’s anti-corruption system, this was an alarming way for the Trump administration to commence. I asserted at the time that, unless corrected, the result would be: 1) U.S. citizens, banks, and companies would be subjected to bribe solicitation and without the cover created by FCPA to say no; 2) U.S. standing in international bodies, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), would be diminished, possibly resulting in a future deliberation on whether the United States itself should be subject to additional scrutiny by banks and companies as a risky jurisdiction; and, 3) China could take advantage of the U.S. departure from the global anti-corruption scene to advance its own interests, both in the use of corrupt practices and in casting whatever the United States does in those lights. – A Year Later – What Did the Pause on FCPA Enforcement Do?