President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to halt the enforcement of an anti-corruption law that bars companies operating in the US from bribing foreign government officials to win business.
The executive order from the White House pauses the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has been a vital tool for US authorities in targeting corporate misconduct for almost 50 years.
When it was introduced in 1977, the law only applied to US persons, a legal definition that included companies, citizens and residents, before it was expanded in 1998 to also cover foreign companies operating in America.
Many high-profile companies have been prosecuted under the law. These are some of the most notable cases from recent years.
RTX, 2024
The US defence contractor struck a more than $950mn settlement over claims it bribed a Qatari official to facilitate arms sales to the Gulf country and defrauded the Pentagon into overpaying for weapons including the Patriot missile systems.
Trafigura, 2024
One of the world’s largest commodities traders pleaded guilty to charges of bribing officials in Brazil, and agreed to pay $127mn in fines and forfeited profits. US prosecutors said Trafigura made the bribes to retain business with Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company.
Goldman Sachs, 2020
The Wall Street investment bank’s Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty to a bribery charge as the bank agreed a $2.9bn settlement with multiple authorities, including the DoJ, over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad money-laundering scandal. US officials said the bank ignored red flags over fundraisings it arranged for state fund 1MDB.
Airbus, 2020
Europe’s aerospace champion agreed to pay €3.6bn in penalties to authorities in the US, UK and France to settle a long-running bribery probe into the company’s use of intermediaries to secure international sales.
Ericsson, 2019
The Swedish telecoms group agreed to pay more than $1bn after admitting to using agents and consultants to bribe officials in countries including Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait. Cash bribes disguised as sham contracts were among the offences Ericsson admitted to.
Odebrecht, 2016
Odebrecht, then Latin America’s largest construction company, and its petrochemicals unit Braskem, agreed to pay at least $3.5bn in fines for its part in a conspiracy to bribe government officials.
BAE Systems, 2010
Britain’s largest defence company was fined $400mn and pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to making false statements to the US government in connection with regulatory filings and undertakings.
Siemens, 2008
The Munich-based company agreed to pay €1bn as part of a settlement with US and German authorities over suspected payments to officials around the world to win contracts. At the time, the €600mn fine it agreed to pay US authorities was the largest for a company accused of overseas bribery.