She left Trump’s stoppage in the corrupt foreign practices law confusing them and skeptical about the US leadership of anti -corruption efforts.
When President Donald Trump fell in the Forex Practice Law (FCPA) just three weeks after his inauguration, decades of apparent anti -bribery apparently stopped. However, it soon became clear that government public prosecutors were only retreating from some prominent issues with the doubling of others.
Companies and executives, whether in the United States or elsewhere, are now left to move in a new mysterious scene: one in which the political motivation may be just an effect as a legal precedent. Take, for example, the case of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. In April, a federal judge- based on Alina Habba, the American lawyer in New Jersey and the former Trump defense lawyer- officially dropped that the Ministry of Justice had expanded millions of presidents in India. This was the first time that the Ministry of Justice had moved away from a foreign bribery suit since Trump took office for his second term.
“They choose cherries. Either you will sue all these cases or none of them.”
Frank Robino, lawyer
Just a few weeks after Cuborn and Zarzz obtained a pass, prosecutors in a bribery case against Smartmatic, a voting machine in London, who falsely right -wing the theorists of the far -right conspiracy claimed to steal the 2020 elections from Trump to former President Joe Biden. Ironically, it was the Biden administration that filed a case against two smart executives last year. Roger Badat, co -founder of Venezueli, born in Venezuelan, and his colleagues, Jorge Miguel Vasquiz, was accused of making bribes worth one billion dollars in the Philippines. Trump is still the Ministry of Justice to file a lawsuit in Miami.
The disorganized lawyers were left wondering: Does FCPA now apply to some companies, not others?
“I don’t understand why the government takes an unstable position,” says Frank Robino, a lawyer for an important smart CEO. He says that the perceived scenario is not different from what is claimed against Smartmatic. The only difference is the eighth and eighth by prosecutors. “They choose cherries,” says Robino. “You will either sue all these cases or none of them.”
The entire practice of Robino was dedicated to the Coral Gabies, Florida, for the crime of federal white collars, including issues that involve the alleged FCPA violations, over his 30 -year career. It somewhat agrees that the FCPA application can be very strict. “The smallest thing” – if he takes a potential buyer for dinner – can be explained as a violation. But the Trump administration appeared in the preference of one company over another that encourages it to restore the date of a trial in October.
“We will prepare as if Trump did not sign this executive and hope it will be successful,” says Robino. “The fact that some cases were rejected have no effect on our preparation.”
“Terrible law”?
According to law firm Greenberg Traurig, the Ministry of Justice, the Securities and Stock Exchange Committee obtained more than $ 1.28 billion in the total FCPA sanctions in 2024, one of the highest total years since it became the law in 1977.
Over the past decade, many prominent companies have been fined for a bribe, including Airbus, which has settled more than that
$ 3.9 billion in 2020; Goldman Sachs, who settled at $ 2.9 billion in relation to the 1MDB scandal; Glencore, a Swiss -based mining company, has admitted that it was guilty and paid more than $ 1.1 billion to settle the investigation.
During his first term, Trump described FCPA as a “terrible law.” This year, he claimed that he “is active in the activity of the American economic competitiveness.” The executive is an enforcement pause of 180 days to allow the Public Prosecutor Pam Bondi to review the FCPA “instructions and policies”.
This was a special matter for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris -based group that enhances economic growth, stability and trade between a wide range of countries, including the United States.
According to a message sent to Bondi on February 13 and obtained by Global Finance, OECD presented its case: FCPA lengthy stop “will not serve the intended purpose” Restore American competitiveness and security “. This may be achieved on the contrary, by putting American companies operating abroad to a serious danger and depriving the United States of a deterrent tool that they used to provide American companies of unfair practices before Foreign competitors.
The message also argued why Trump’s logic, though in effect, dated.
Nicolas Bonucci, former director of the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization, confirms that the United States was, for a while, in a non -favorable situation since other countries were floating attention to bribery. He says: “The paradox is that the uneven play stadium was a real argument point between 1977 and 1999.” “It’s much less now.”
The OECD Anti -Bribery Agreement in 1999, which Bonucci helped implement, changed 46 signed states, including the United States, to unify bribery and fight it on a global scale. Bonucci adds, that American companies operating abroad “are in a difficult situation”, for fear of a high demand for bribery and more confusion if some companies are dealt with differently from others. “The logical basis for stopping some continuous cases while following others is not clear and creates more uncertainty,” says Bonucci.
As, most defendants have been in FCPA enforcement procedures over the past decade in other countries and regions. A new report from the law firm Gibson Den finds based on data from 2015 to 2024 that during that period, 50 % of the defendants were companies and 62 % of the individual defendants unparalleled. In addition, foreign companies were responsible for eight of the 10 largest cash settlements, contributing $ 6.1 billion out of a total of 8.3 billion dollars.
If the temporary suspension becomes permanently 180 days, or if the United States withdrew as sites for the Anti -Bribery Agreement, the OECD DRAGO KOS chair expects “some countries may think that the wild West of the non -advanced corruption has returned.”
He adds that the United States can also see its image as “harsh enforcement from the global standards of combating bribery … or is considered a” rogue state “. For this reason, I really hope that after 180 days the United States will return to the right track.”
The proximity to politics is important
According to Associated Press, voting machines were used in Smartmatic only in Los Angeles Province, a democratic stronghold in a non -competitive country that Trump, a Republican, after the 2020 elections. However, it remains at the Doj intersection. The case observers note that this follows with the tendency of the Trump administration to receive after that
Imagine enemies, while friendly relations with his internal political circle seem to carry weight. In late March, Trump pardoned the founder of Nicolas and the donor Tiffor Milton, who was convicted of fraud. He also showed the indulgence of the encrypted currency industry, which made millions of donations throughout his campaign until his inauguration. In late March, they pardoned three founders in a bittopyto, who were convicted of laundering money while the Supreme Education Council abandoned the investigations that included Ripple, Coinbase and Gemini.
This year, SEC also abandoned a lawsuit that included Justin Sun, an encrypted entrepreneur who invested millions of Liberty Financial World to the Trump family shortly after election day.
Whether it will now be encouraged by ethical standards, and it appears that the Trump administration is determined whenever a cross -border transfer is taken. Either way, observers say current events are not a good look at the United States.
“I think there are some feelings that have started to turn,” says Kison Patel, CEO of Dealroom, a business administration management programs. “It is not great to go to business or get it by an American company, just give all the current feelings towards our management now.”
In fact, from mid -April, Tracker Tracker Dealogic explains that the activity of integration and purchases decreased by 3 % in 2025 compared to this time last year, while in other regions, the size rises: Japan (142 %), Asia (99 %), Middle East/Africa (80 %), Canada (53 %), and Europe (9 %).
Kos says that the United States swims against tidal, as the global position against bribery has become strong and interrelated, expecting that it is unlikely that most countries will follow Washington’s progress in the event of the abolition of FCPA or the end of its participation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “The anti -corruption world has become strongly linked now,” he says, and the fact that one country is withdrawing, although it is very painful, it will not be an irreplaceable obstacle to the rest of the world to continue fighting corruption. Simply put: The main role of the United States will be replaced by other countries that will correspond to the method of developing economics. “
