Penalizing Foreigners’ Demands for Bribes Won’t Stop Corruption
Harry G. Broadman writes critically about the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last month, to address the fact that the FCPA does not empower U.S. authorities to prosecute the “demand” side of overseas bribe transactions.
He acknowledges that the goal of trying to hold accountable all parties to corrupt transactions is “certainly laudable”. But he argues that “not only is it dubious that in practice the extraterritorial enforcement of such a law will be effective in securing the punishment of non-U.S. public officeholders, it is also questionable as to whether it will make a real dent in neutralizing U.S. firms’ zealotry to buy their way into markets abroad.”
