The FCPA consists of two sections that are antibribery and accounting provisions. Accounting provisions are secondary and their purpose is to support charges based on anti-corruption ones (Barker, Pacini, and Sinason 50). The FCPA prohibits any US issuer or domestic concern from bribing a foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining, retaining or directing business (15 U.S. Code § 78dd). According to 1998 amendment, non-US persons also fall under the FCPA provisions for wrongdoing while in the US or even with no presence in the US in some cases. In general, the FCPA has six key elements of a FCPA Violation that are as follows (Winer, Fredericksen, and Virginkar 16):
1) person’s conduct in form of an offer, payment or promise to pay “money
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or organized according to the laws of the U.S, and persons who are citizens of the US or have permanent allegiance to the US. In some cases, foreigners while within the US or even with no presence while doing violation are subjects to the FCPA prosecution as well.
While the FCPA has the Section with definitions of its main terms, some its provisions are still vague. Therefore, enforcement authorities interpret them broadly. Concerning the second element, enforcement bodies concern an employee of state-owned company as foreign official as
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visas, permits, licenses, other governmental papers, etc. However, decisions of authorities regarding rewarding/continues or not rewarding/continue business to a particular person or an entity are out of scope for routine services. In addition, there are two defenses for payments in the FCPA that are as follows: (a) questionable payment that is legal according to local written regulation and (b) payment that is “reasonable and bona fide” and used for promotion or demonstration/explanation of products/services, or for performance of a contract. In fact, compliance policies of many companies prohibit their employees even from allowed payments since the boundary between lawful and unlawful actions is blurred and this is highly risky for companies.
In addition to anti-bribery provisions, the FCPA has accounting provisions that prescribes issuers maintain books and keep records of all transactions. It requires a company implements and maintains efficient internal control. While the books and records provisions are secondary, they may apply both together with anti-bribery norms as well as