By Andrew Goudsward, Sarah N. Lynch and Chris Prentice
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department’s team dedicated to investigating allegations of foreign bribery has dwindled as President Donald Trump’s administration reviews its enforcement of a decades-old law aimed at preventing corruption, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The DOJ’s Fraud Section unit tasked with enforcing the anti-bribery law has shrunk to about 15 prosecutors, according to two of the sources. That number is down from 32 as of a January report published on the department’s website.
The cuts follow Trump’s executive order in February calling for a pause in enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prohibits companies that operate in the U.S. from bribing foreign officials and has become a cornerstone of federal efforts to combat corruption.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment.
The DOJ launched a 180-day review of its enforcement of the FCPA following Trump’s order, which kicked off an exodus of staff from the unit. Prosecutors largely moved elsewhere in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, including its Healthcare and Marketplace Fraud units, two of the sources said.
New guidance on how prosecutors are to handle FCPA cases is being drafted and expected to be released soon, one of the sources said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi in February directed foreign bribery prosecutors to prioritize cases related to drug cartels, a Trump administration emphasis that has not traditionally been a focus of the unit.
A memo from the Criminal Division last month listed foreign bribery below issues such as fraud in government programs and tariff evasion as corporate enforcement priorities for the Trump administration.
The DOJ has been scaling back its enforcement against white-collar crimes and focusing on different types of cases. It has also dropped other initiatives aimed at preventing corruption.
(Reporting Chris Prentice in New York, Andrew Goudward and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)
Comments