Corporations bribe foreign politicians, too
Daily Finance reported Nov. 26 that the U.S. Justice Department has increased enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which prohibits American companies from bribing foreign officials. Quoting the FCPA blog, it noted that in 2004, "two individuals were charged under the FCPA, and criminal fines collected that year were around $11 million. In 2009 and 2010, over 50 individuals have been charged, 35 await trial, and nearly $2 billion in fines have been collected."
Perhaps one way the government could reduce the national budget deficit would be to actually enforce the laws against corporate malfeasance, and in addition to sending corporate executives to prison — a punishment (and simultaneous deterrent to further crime) that is sorely lacking — collect large (not slap-on-the-wrist, cost-of-doing-business) fines that would eat into shareholders' take and make corporate crime a money-losing venture.
Daily Finance writer Tracy Coenen states that increased enforcement of the FCPA is making corporate executives nervous (good!), and that it's expensive to be investigated and to comply with settlements (which is also good). She also claims that it's relatively easy for companies to violate the FCPA, and that enforcement has been inconsistent.
Of course, what Coenen and the sources she quotes don't acknowledge is that it's rather hypocritical for corporations to opt for confidential agreements with the government in order to avoid a public airing of FCPA enforcement actions, and then complain that there's no judicial scrutiny or substantive case law underlying them that companies can use to measure their compliance. They can't have it both ways ...
And they can always ask the government before they do something to determine whether it's legal. The Justice Department would be hard-pressed to pursue a company for conduct that they themselves had signed off on — and even if they did so, most judges would be inclined to reject such a move. For those familiar with corporate behavior, it simply strains credulity to claim that most or even many FCPA enforcement actions are quite so whimsical ...
