The FCPA Lives: Targeting the TCO Ecosystem

James Koukios spoke to Anti-Corruption Report about the new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement guidelines, including the memo’s requirement that prosecutors look for links between foreign bribery and cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).

James said, “As written, this [factor] would seem to sweep in a lot of conduct beyond crimes with a direct link to a TCO.” For example, if a Mexican customs agent is bribed both by a TCO to allow the illegal importation of firearms and by a company to allow the unauthorized importation of a retail product for sale, the company’s bribery investigation would seem to meet the criteria laid out in the new memo, “even though the retail company had no direct link to the TCO itself,” he cautioned. James also opined that the memo does not seem to require that a prosecutor establish a link to a TCO in order initiate an FCPA investigation; that link can be explored as part of the investigation.

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