On February 10, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order pausing all new enforcement activity under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and reviewing all existing FCPA investigations. Just a week earlier, the newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum (the Memorandum) on February 5, outlining new Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement priorities, announcing the administration’s pivot towards bribery investigations involving violent transnational crime and international drug cartels, and away from investigations that do not involve these connections. Taken together, the Executive Order and DOJ Memo herald the most notable shift in enforcement priorities and procedures in the FCPA’s nearly 50-year history.

The Executive Order

The Executive Order, “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security,” halts the initiation of new FCPA enforcement actions for a period of at least 180 (and possibly 360) days while the Attorney General stops new FCPA matters, evaluates existing ones, and drafts new enforcement guidelines for initiating FCPA matters designed to “prioritize American interests, American economic competitiveness. . . , and [to ensure] the efficient use of Federal law enforcement resources.” In his Executive Order, the President asserted that “his foreign policy authority is inextricably linked with the global economic competitiveness of American companies.” Further the President stated that “American national security depends in substantial part on the United States and its companies gaining strategic business advantages whether in critical minerals, deep-water ports, or other key infrastructure or assets.”

In addition to the above, the executive order directs the Attorney General to look back at closed resolutions and to consider whether remedial actions are appropriate in light of the new policies. 

Memorandum from Attorney General Bondi

Just days before the Order was signed, Attorney General Bondi also issued a memorandum, titled “Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations” setting out new enforcement priorities for DOJ lawyers. Under the Memorandum, the DOJ’s FCPA Unit was directed to “prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and [transnational criminal organizations], and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection.” Examples of priority cases include bribery of foreign officials to facilitate human smuggling and the trafficking of narcotics and firearms.

The Memorandum also suspended the Justice Manual requirements that necessitate authorization from the DOJ’s Criminal Division for FCPA and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act enforcement for all matters relating to foreign bribery associated with cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

Key Takeaways

1. FCPA enforcement has effectively been suspended. The Executive Order effectively suspends enforcement of the FCPA by the Department of Justice. It stops the initiation of any new matters for at least 180 days, requires review of all existing cases, mandates new guidelines for FCPA enforcement, and appears to effect a retroactive application of those guidelines to old FCPA matters. The Order is explicit in its embrace of the FCPA as a tool to enhance “American economic competitiveness.”
2. As of now, the SEC retains civil FCPA enforcement authority. The order does not address FCPA enforcement by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has civil FCPA enforcement authority over public companies in the US. As of this writing, the SEC has not made any announcements regarding shifts in enforcement policy, as the confirmation process for the SEC Chair nominee, Paul Atkins, continues. But given the new DOJ policy and the Executive Order, it is likely that the Trump Administration will consider similar changes to SEC FCPA enforcement policy.
3. The FCPA is still the law of the land, and corruption and bribery are still prohibited in the US and under the law of many other jurisdictions. The statute of limitations for the FCPA is five years; therefore FCPA violations that occur during President Trump’s current term could be prosecuted by future administrations.

Other jurisdictions also maintain anti-bribery regimes similar to the FCPA, including the UK’s Bribery Act and many EU countries, including—notably—France’s Sapin II, which ushered in an era of increasing anti-corruption investigations and enforcement by French authorities. US companies operating in jurisdictions with such laws remain subject to enforcement actions in those countries. Given the global state of anti-corruption enforcement and their own cross-border operations, multinational companies will do well to maintain their compliance programs and remain alert to bribery risks, which can help mitigate exposure to anti-corruption enforcement in foreign jurisdictions and under future administrations.