Though the US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is nothing new – the act was passed in America in 1977 – it’s a piece of legislation that will be coming into the international spotlight in coming months as it is used to demonstrate the increasningly long reach of US law.
The FCPA, which prohibits bribery of domestic and foreign officials, covers not only the US citizens involved in said bribery, but also foreign corporations – and it’s this latter party that has been pushed into the spotlight recently.
Former Bangkok governor Juthamas Siriwan and her daughter have been charged in the US with accepting millions of dollars in bribes from two US citizens between 2002 and 2007, in return for running the city’s film festival. The US has claimed jurisdiction over Juthamas under the FCPA, despite the fact that the corrupt practices in question took place in Thailand, and the accepted bribes were channeled to non-US bank accounts.
The FCPA is yet another example of the US legislation that attempts to govern across transnational barriers. The US HIRE Act required all foreign banks to report the holdings of their American account holders to the IRS. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which requires expats to report all of their holdings in foreign banks and financial institutons to the IRS, has caused such an administrative burden that some foreign banks have begun to refuse to accept US clients. Now, with this new legal crackdown on foreign nationals pursuant to the FCPA, foreign businesses may also be reluctant to conduct business with American citizens living abroad.
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