What is FEPA?

On December 22, 2023, the President signedinto law The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (“FEPA”). This law prohibitsforeign government officials (“FGO’s”) from demanding, accepting, agreeing toreceive, anything of value in return for influencing or inducing in violationof their official duties to allow improper advantage to be given to any person.

This new act now targets the receiver ofthe bribe (demand side) whereas the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act had targetedthe provider of the bribe (supply side).

The FGO definition now also includes: seniorforeign political figures and individuals acting in official and “unofficial”capacities for, or on behalf of, governments, departments, agencies,instrumentalities, or public international organizations. It appears that theFGO expanded definition now adds non-governmental entities by including publicinternational organizations.

The penalties for the receiver of thebribes is $250,000 or up to three times the value of the bribe and up to 15years prison time.

What does this mean for corporations?

1. It appears with added legislation against bribery, the US government will continue and or increase its enforcement actions against bribe payors and now bribe demanders/receivers. Therefore corporations will need to continue to improve and enhance their anti-corruption compliance programs.
2. Corporations should update their compliance policies and procedures based on the recent government actions such as the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act (2023) [1], DOJ update of  “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” March 2023 [2], and the FEPA.[3]
3. Most likely the DOJ will require or add to their guidelines recommendations for corporations to identify who received or requested the bribes in their investigations, due diligence and third party audits.
4. Corporations should update their anti-corruption training to include the above additions such as the new definition of an FGO and understanding the implications of the FEPA.
5. Corporations should enhance continuous monitoring to identify bribe requestors and the expanded FGO criteria.

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[1] https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/s3316/BILLS-117s3316es.pdf

[2] https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-fraud/page/file/937501/dl?inline

[3] https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr4737/BILLS-117hr4737ih.pdf