Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
Definition
A US federal statute that prohibits US-listed companies, their officers, and agents from bribing foreign government officials. Applies extraterritorially, meaning the conduct need not occur on US soil. Enforced jointly by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Jurisdiction
- United States, federal statute
- Prohibits
- Bribing foreign government officials
- Applies to
- US-listed companies, their officers, and agents
- Enforced by
- Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission
Common questions
What does extraterritorial application of the FCPA mean in practice?+
A US-listed company or its agents can be prosecuted for bribery that took place entirely outside the United States, as long as the jurisdictional link to a US issuer or domestic concern is established, unlike statutes limited to conduct within national borders.
How does the FCPA relate to the UK Bribery Act in a forensic audit?+
Both target corrupt payments to officials, but the UK Bribery Act also criminalises private-sector bribery and failure to prevent bribery by an organisation, so a multinational forensic audit often has to test compliance against both regimes separately.
Related terms
- ACFE Fraud Examiners Manual
- The comprehensive reference published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners that defines the body of knowledge for the CFE credential. Covers...
- Adequate Procedures
- The defence to the Section 7 corporate offence under the UK Bribery Act. A commercial organisation must show it had in place...
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA)
- An agreement between a prosecutor and a company in which criminal charges are filed but prosecution is deferred in exchange for cooperation,...
- Expert Witness Duty
- The obligation owed by a forensic auditor appointed as an expert witness to assist the court, tribunal, or arbitral body objectively, overriding...
- Facilitation Payment
- A small payment to a government official to expedite a routine official action. The FCPA exempts such payments; the UK Bribery Act...
- OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
- The 1997 OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, requiring its 44 signatories to criminalise active...
- Predication
- The reasonable basis that justifies opening a fraud examination. The ACFE holds that no examination should begin without adequate predication, meaning a...
- SSFS No. 1 (AICPA)
- The Statement on Standards for Forensic Services No. 1, issued by the AICPA in 2019. The first binding professional standard specifically governing...
- UK Bribery Act 2010
- A UK statute that criminalises both public and private sector bribery, covers any person (not only government officials), and creates a strict-liability...
Explained in these topics
- Bribery and Corruption: FCPA and UK Bribery ActA 1977 US statute with two main pillars: anti-bribery provisions prohibiting corrupt payments to foreign government officials to obtain or retain business, and...
- Legal and Regulatory Framework for Forensic Audits