NEW YORK—Businesses with ties to the U.S. shouldn’t take much from a recent dip in the number of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, a former federal prosecutor is saying.
The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission brought 18 FCPA-related enforcement actions in 2021, the lowest number in a decade, according to Stanford Law School’s FCPA Clearinghouse. The law prohibits companies with ties to the U.S. from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite the drop in enforcement actions, companies should anticipate more FCPA cases given how the Biden administration has made pursuing white-collar crime a priority, said Joshua Drew, a former federal prosecutor who now is a special counsel at the law firm Miller & Chevalier, said during the Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance Forum.
Change in Administrations
“There have been fewer numbers of enforcement actions,” he said, noting a change in administration typically brings a pause to ongoing investigations and the pandemic has created challenges for probes. “I definitely would not read too much into that in terms of commitment to vigorous enforcement, or whether…more cases are coming. I expect they are.”
The White House’s focus on white-collar crime is alive and well in other areas as well, lawyers speaking at the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum said, pointing to the Justice Department’s focus on sanctions as an example.