Donald Trump stops law prohibiting bribery from foreign officials

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Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the U.S. anti-corruption law, which prohibits Americans from bribing foreign government officials to win business.

The president said in the Oval Office after signing an executive order on Monday that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who suspended the implementation of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, said: “This is what it means to do,” the president said in the Oval Office after he directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to suspend the implementation of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. It will mean more business.”

“It sounds good on paper, but in (practice), it's a disaster,” Trump said. “It means if Americans go abroad and start to do it legally, legally or otherwise, start doing it there Business, that's almost guaranteed to investigate, prosecute, no one is willing to do business with Americans because of it.”

White House officials said the country's “national security depends on the United States and its companies gaining strategic business advantages around the world.”

“President Trump is stopping excessive, unpredictable FCPA enforcement, which makes American companies less competitive,” officials added.

The order marks one of the boldest law enforcement policies issued by the Trump administration, which may undermine the critical tools for undermining individual and corporate misconduct.

FCPA supports some of the Justice Department’s most notable cases, including a plea agreement with Trafigura, which involves bribing Brazilian-made merchandise trading companies designed to retain operations with state-controlled oil company Petrobras.

In 2022, one of McKinsey's former senior partners pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the FCPA, in connection with a huge corruption scandal during the administration of former South African President Jacob Zuma.

Last October, U.S. defense contractor RTX agreed to pay more than $900 million in claim payments, claiming that bribed a Katari official to promote arms sales to Middle Eastern countries and deceived the Pentagon to pay including patriotic passes Weapons including systems.

White House officials said Bundy will issue new enforcement guidelines to “promote the competitiveness of the United States and effectively utilize federal law enforcement resources,” adding that previous and existing FCPA actions will be reviewed.

The official added that “the “ban on engaging in” that prohibits them from engaging in common practices by international competitors, creating an uneven playing field, has suffered from “over-enforcement”.

The White House said U.S. national security needs to have a strategic advantage in a variety of infrastructure assets, such as critical minerals and deep-water ports.

The official said the FCPA prosecution has “grown costs on our nation’s economy” and cited 26 enforcement actions related to laws proposed by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.

The official said dozens of law enforcement actions each year exhaust the resources of companies and law enforcement agencies. They added that by the end of 2024, 31 companies are undergoing FCPA-related investigations.

The SEC established a dedicated department in 2010 to strengthen its FCPA enforcement and describe it as a “high priority area.”

Last year, the regulator accused a former executive, Azure Power Global, the core company of a renewable energy company, accusing Indian billionaire Gautam Adani of suffering a bribery scheme. The Ministry of Justice also filed a criminal prosecution.

Azure said the former employee mentioned in the allegations had been “separated” from him for more than a year. The Adani Group called the allegation “basically unfounded.”

Legal experts argue that the case was filed before Trump returns to the White House and can depend on his presidency.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.