The Trump break of the law on foreign corruption practices left companies combined and cast a doubt about American leaders of the efforts to combat corruption.
When President Donald Trump retraced the law on foreign corruption practices (FCPA) only three weeks after its inauguration, anti-corruption decades have apparently stopped. However, it quickly became obvious that government prosecutors only withdrew from certain high -level cases while doubled the others.
Companies and their leaders, in the United States and elsewhere, are now to travel a new troubled landscape: that where political motivation can be just as influential as the previous legal. Take, for example, the case of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. In April, a federal judge – at the request of Alina Habba, American lawyer for New Jersey and a former Defense of the Defense of Trump – unofficially abandoned the case of corruption of the Ministry of Justice, which allegedly authorized the Society, Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz, who allegedly authorized a million dollars to a million dollars for India. It was the first time that the DoJ has moved away from a foreign prosecution of corruption since Trump took office for his second term.
“They are picked. You will continue all these cases or none of them. ”
Frank Rubino, Lawyer
Only a few weeks after Coburn and Schwartz obtained a pass, the prosecutors carried out a corruption case against Smartmatic, a voting machine-based voting machine that the theorists of the far-right conspiracy falsely claimed to have helped to steal the 2020 election in Trump in favor of former president Joe Biden. Ironically, it was the Biden administration that brought a file against two smartmatic leaders last year. The co-founder of Venezuelan origin Roger Piñate and his colleague, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, were both accused of having made bribes of $ 1 million in the Philippines. Trump’s DOJ is still going ahead with the trial in Miami.
Confused lawyers wondered: FCPA now only applies to certain companies and not others?
“I do not understand why the government occupies an inconsistent position,” explains Frank Rubino, lawyer for one of the managers of SmartMatic responsible. The knowledge scenario is no different from what is alleged against SmartMatic, he maintains. The only difference is the eight on the part of prosecutors. “They are picked,” says Rubino. “You will either continue all these cases, or none of them.”
The entire practice of Rubino in Coral Gables, in Florida, was devoted to the federal crime of white passes, including cases involving alleged violations of the FCPA, during his 30 -year career. And somewhat should be applied for the FCPA can be too strict. The “smallest thing” – EG, taking a potential buyer for dinner – can be interpreted as a violation, he said. But the appearance by the Trump administration to promote one company to another encourages it to prepare for a trial date in October.
“We will prepare as if Trump had never signed this decree and, hopefully, will succeed,” said Rubino. “The fact that some cases are rejected have no impact on our preparation.”
A “horrible law”?
According to law firm Greenberg TRAURIG, the DoJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained more than $ 1.28 billion in FCPA penalties in 2024, one of the highest years that followed the law in 1977.
In the past decade, several large -scale companies have been sentenced to a fine for corruption, including Airbus, who has settled for more
$ 3.9 billion in 2020; Goldman Sachs, who was satisfied with $ 2.9 billion in connection with the 1MDB scandal; And Glencore, a mining company based in Switzerland, which pleaded guilty and paid more than $ 1.1 billion to settle an investigation.
During his first mandate, Trump described the FCPA as “horrible law”. This year, he said it “actively harms American economic competitiveness”. His decree promulgated an application break of 180 days to allow the Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the “directives and policies” of the FCPA.
This was particularly shocking for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris based group which promotes economic growth, stability and trade between a large group of countries, including the United States.
According to a letter sent to Bondi on February 13 and obtained by Global Finance, the OECD pleaded: an prolonged FCPA break “will not serve its planned objective to” restore American competitiveness and security “. He can reach the opposite by putting American companies operating abroad at serious risks and depriving the United States from a deterrent instrument that she has used to protect American companies from unfair practices by foreign competitors. »»
The letter also explained why Trump’s logic, although valid, is dated.
Nicola Bonucci, former OECD director, argues that the United States was, for a certain time, disadvantageous because other countries would make his eyes on corruption. “The paradox is that the uneven playground was a real argument between 1977 and 1999,” he said. “It’s much less now.”
The OECD 1999 OECD anti-corruption convention, which Bonucci helped implement, changed the standard when 46 signatory states, including the United States, agreed to unite and fight corruption on a global scale. American companies operating abroad “are in a difficult situation,” adds Bonucci, fearing an increase in corruption requests and additional confusion if some companies are treated differently from others. “The justification for the judgment of certain current cases while pursuing others is not clear and creates additional uncertainty,” explains Bonucci.
In the current state of things, most accused of the actions to apply the FCPA law over the past decade were based in other countries and regions. A new report by the Gibson Dunn law firm based on data from 2015 to 2024 reveals that throughout this period, 50% of the accused of companies and 62% of individual defendants were not based on the United States. In addition, foreign companies were responsible for eight of the 10 largest monetary regulations, which contributes to $ 6.1 billion in the total of $ 8.3 billion.
If the 180-day break becomes permanent, or if the United States is withdrawing as a signatory of the anti-corruption convention, the president of the OECD Draco Kos expects that “certain countries may think that the West of Impunia corruption is back”.
The United States could also see its image as “a difficult executor of global anti-corruption standards … Slipping into oblivion” or being considered as a “rogue state”, he adds. “This is why I really hope that after 180 days, the United States will be back on the right track.”
The proximity of the policy is important
According to the Associated Press, the smartmatic voting machines were only used in the County of Los Angeles, a democratic bastion in a non -competitive state that Trump, a Republican, did not dispute after the 2020 elections. However, he remains in the Doj’s reticle. The observers of the case note that this follows the penchant of the Trump administration to go after
Enemies perceived while friendly ties with his interior political circle seem to gain weight. At the end of March, Trump forgave the founder and donor of Nikola, Trevor Milton, found guilty of investors’ fraud. He also showed leniency to the cryptocurrency industry, which provided millions of donations throughout its campaign and to its inauguration. At the end of March, he pardoned three Bitmex founders found guilty of money laundering while the dry abandoned the investigations involving Ripple, Coinbase and Gemini.
This year, the SEC also abandoned a trial involving Justin Sun, a cryptographic entrepreneur who has invested millions in the global financial company of the Trump family shortly after election day.
That companies will now be embraced by the ethical standards that the Trump administration seems to establish whenever they make a cross -border transaction remains to be seen. Be that as it may, observers say that current events are not a good look for the United States.
“I think there are feelings that start to move,” explains Kison Patel, CEO of Dealroom, a supplier of M&A life management software. “It is not as glamorous to embark on business or to be acquired by an American company, just to give to all the current feelings towards our administration at the moment.”
Indeed, in mid-April, Data Tracker Dealogic shows that the activity of mergers and acquisitions is down 3%in 2025 compared to the period last year, while in other regions, the volume is up: Japan (142%), Asia (99%), the Middle East / Africa (80%), Canada (53%) and Europe.
The United States swimming against the tide while the global position against corruption has become strong and interconnected, says Kos, predicting that it is unlikely that most countries will follow the example of Washington if they repeal the FCPA or end its involvement with the OECD. “The anti-corruption world is now strongly linked,” he says, “and the fact that a country withdraws, although very painful, will not be an assurmontable obstacle so that the rest of the world continues to fight corruption.