by Jamie A. Schafer, David B. Massey, Lee S. Richards III and Michael D. Mann
On August 14, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published the agency’s first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Opinion Procedure Release (“FCPA Opinion Release”) since 2014.[1] In this guidance, DOJ confirmed that it would not prosecute a company for commercially reasonable payments made to a state-owned service provider in return for legitimate services rendered where there was no corrupt intent or diversion of money to any individual. As always, FCPA Opinion Releases should be read narrowly because the analysis relates to specific complex circumstances, many of which are not transparent to the reader.