Hussain Talks Upcoming Changes to Foreign Agents Registration Act

White Collar Defense & Investigations partner Murad Hussain was quoted in the recent Bloomberg Law article, “US Hints at Curbing Foreign Agent Registration Exemptions,” which discusses a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official’s remarks at a recent conference about forthcoming changes to DOJ regulations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Although DOJ has previously read one of FARA’s statutory exemptions as covering foreign entities’ political activities that do not primarily benefit foreign governments, the official suggested that DOJ will now read that exemption as only covering political activities that primarily benefit a domestic interest. “Figuring out whether something primarily benefits a domestic interest versus a foreign interest can be a hard line to draw, especially when you’re talking about U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies,” said Hussain, who attended the conference.

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