by Marshall L. Miller, Sean Hecker, Jenna M. Dabbs, and Ana Frischtak
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (PDF: 93 KB) is unique among U.S. criminal statutes in many ways—not least of which is the degree to which its primary enforcers, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, provide legal and policy guidance as to its scope and application, primarily through the Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “Guide (PDF: 3.83 MB)”). On Friday, July 3, DOJ and the SEC issued a Second Edition of this key compendium, providing insight into the government’s continually developing approach to enforcing this far-reaching statute.
The eight years since the Guide’s initial publication in 2012 have witnessed critical developments in FCPA case law, enforcement policy, and DOJ and SEC practice, with the new edition of the Guide reflecting those developments. And while the Second Edition does not contain unexpected new pronouncements, it provides practitioners with a window into DOJ and SEC thinking, including their approaches to thorny enforcement challenges and recurring fact patterns.