Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


US Justice Dept. Announces Policy to Encourage Reporting of Foreign Bribery

by Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON --

   The U.S. Justice Department has announced a revised policy designed to
   incentivize companies to disclose foreign bribery to avoid penalties.

   Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the department's No. 2
   official, made the announcement Wednesday at the 34th annual conference
   on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

   The FCPA, enacted in 1977, makes it a crime to pay bribes to foreign
   officials to gain a business advantage.

   Under the new policy announced by Rosenstein, companies that
   voluntarily disclose foreign bribery, cooperate with the Justice
   Department and take remedial steps will face substantially reduced
   penalties.

   Rosenstein said offenders that comply with the policy's requirements
   may avoid prosecution and expect to be fined 50 percent less than the
   lower end of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

   "The incentive system set forth in the Department's FCPA Pilot Program
   motivates and rewards companies that want to do the right thing and
   voluntarily disclose misconduct," Rosenstein said.

   The new policy, Rosenstein said, will be incorporated into the manual
   used by the Justice Department's 93 U.S. Attorneys.

   The policy is based on a one-year pilot program launched by the Justice
   Department in April 2016 under the administration of then president
   Barack Obama.

   In the year and half since its launch, Rosentein said, the department
   has received 30 voluntary disclosures of FCPA violations, compared with
   18 disclosures during the previous 18-month period before its launch.

   "We analyzed the Pilot Program and concluded that it proved to be a
   step forward in fighting corporate crime," Rosenstein said.

   Since 2016, the Justice Department has obtained criminal resolutions in
   17 corporate related FCPA cases, resulting in penalties and forfeitures
   of $1.6 billion, the deputy attorney general said.

   Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced two former
   executives of Rolls-Royce and its subsidiaries had pleaded guilty to
   conspiracy to bribe foreign officials.