New Attorney General Announces Priorities and Procedures for FCPA Enforcement

On February 5, 2025, her very first day in office, President Trump’s Attorney General, Pamela Bondi, got right to work, issuing a flurry of memoranda to U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) employees. Among the many policies she revamped is DOJ’s approach to enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials to obtain or retain business or a business advantage.

Changing Priorities: Under the banner of a memorandum titled “Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Attorney General Bondi directed DOJ employees to “prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and TCOs, and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection.” Examples of priority matters include “bribery of foreign officials to facilitate human smuggling and the trafficking of narcotics and firearms.”

Changing Procedures: The Attorney General also relaxed the internal procedures for federal prosecutors to initiate and charge certain FCPA cases. Specifically, she suspended the requirement that the Fraud Section of DOJ’s Criminal Division in Washington, D.C. authorize and conduct any investigation and prosecution relating to foreign bribery, if the matter is associated with a cartel or a transnational criminal organization. Local U.S. Attorney Offices around the country now have more autonomy to bring such cases and need to provide only 24 hours’ notice to Main Justice of their intention to seek charges.

What Might the Attorney General’s Memorandum Mean for FCPA Enforcement? Is the Attorney General’s memorandum a harbinger of less FCPA enforcement? Possibly. Possibly not. Historically, many FCPA cases have been unconnected to human smuggling or the trafficking of narcotics or firearms. Indeed, those areas — always DOJ priorities — have been the primary focus of other components of the department. So we are largely in uncharted waters.

It is also unclear whether the new policy will have any effect on existing matters. Even though the memorandum does not confer any rights or benefits on individuals or companies, those already under investigation for FCPA violations could rely on the memorandum to seek to dissuade DOJ from taking enforcement action in matters that lack a connection to the cartels or transnational criminal organizations that the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate.

On the other hand, FCPA enforcement might actually increase, at least in certain areas. For example, DOJ might more aggressively prosecute FCPA violations related directly to Mexico and other Latin American countries, as well as China — places that the Trump administration has identified publicly as sources of transnational criminal activity, including trafficking of illegal narcotics.

Either way, businesses should be even more vigilant about any relationships — direct or indirect — with individuals or businesses that have any hint of an affiliation with cartels and transnational organizations.

Another reason for potential increased enforcement is that Attorney General Bondi’s memorandum gives U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country more autonomy to bring cases on their own, with less involvement from DOJ attorneys at Main Justice. Without centralized oversight, this new delegation of authority could result in DOJ’s bringing more cases more quickly. That would be consistent with one of the memorandum’s stated goals: “Removing Bureaucratic Impediments to Aggressive Prosecutions.”

Taking a broader view:

• Although then President-elect Donald Trump criticized the FCPA back in 2012, well before holding elected office (calling it a “horrible law” that “should be changed”), DOJ reached some of the largest-ever FCPA settlements, with both U.S. and foreign companies, during his first administration.
• The “priorities” Attorney General Bondi announced on “day one” might not be DOJ’s priorities next year or the year after.
• The statute of limitations for criminal FCPA violations is five years. So violations that occurred recently, that remain ongoing, or take place in the next four years could all be fair game for the next administration (whether Republican or Democrat).
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retains civil authority to enforce the FCPA against “issuers” (namely, companies with publicly traded securities in the United States). So far, the SEC has not announced any changes to its FCPA enforcement program.
• Other countries around the world have beefed up their enforcement of anti-corruption laws, many at the urging of the United States. So even if U.S. authorities do not assert jurisdiction over those implicated in a particular international bribery scheme, other authorities might take their own shot.

Stay tuned as we continue to monitor developments in the new presidential administration.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2025 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.