US President Donald Trump halted the enforcement of an anti-corruption law that allows the prosecution of Americans accused of bribing foreign officials.
The law has been in place for around 50 years and prohibits US firms from trying to retain or win new business with other countries by bribing government figures.
“It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” Trump said when signing the executive order on Monday.
A White House statement said “over-expansive” and “unpredictable” enforcement of the law risked the “economic advancement of the US”.
Trump has previously spoken of striking down the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), having called it a “horrible law” and said “the world is laughing at us” for enforcing it.
He has also directed US justice authorities to review current and past actions related to the law and to find new guidelines for the FCPA’s enforcement.
‘Diminishes the crown jewel’
The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said Trump’s order “diminishes – and could pave the way for completely eliminating – the crown jewel in the US’s fight against global corruption”.
But the president said in a statement that enforcing the law would only bar “routine business practices in other nations” and that enforcement action takes resources away from “preserving American freedoms”.
The White House said: “US companies are harmed by FCPA over-enforcement because they are prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field.”
It said Trump wanted to eliminate “excessive barriers to American commerce abroad”.
Previous cases in which the law has been invoked have involved Goldman Sachs and mining giant Glencore.
In 2020, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay nearly $3bn (£2.3bn) to end a probe of its role in the 1MDB corruption scandal.
The bank’s Malaysian subsidiary admitted in a US court that it had paid more than $1bn in bribes to win work raising money for the Malaysian state-owned wealth fund.
In 2022, the Swiss-based mining company Glencore said it would pay $180m to the Democratic Republic of Congo to settle corruption claims. It came after a series of corruption cases led by countries including the US.
In 2024, the US’s justice department and the financial watchdog the Securities Exchange Commission filed 26 enforcement actions under the anti-corruption law, with at least 31 companies under investigation by the end of year.
On the same day Trump signed the order, the justice department told federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has pleaded not guilty of accepting illegal campaign funds and gifts in exchange for his influence as mayor. The White House said the indictment had “restricted” the mayor’s ability to address “illegal immigration and violent crime”.
Trump also pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who served eight years in prison over corruption charges before his term was cut short by Trump during his first term.
By BBC News
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