FCPA Explained: Anti-Bribery Rules, Penalties and 2026 Enforcement

Last updated: 21 October 2026. This guide explains the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and how the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission enforce it, with a comparison with the UK Bribery Act 2010 and the new EU anti-corruption directive. It is general information, not legal advice.

Short answer: The FCPA is a 1977 US federal law that makes it a crime to pay or offer anything of value to a foreign official to win or keep business, and requires US-listed companies to keep accurate books and adequate internal controls. It still applies in full in 2026, but since 2025 the Justice Department has narrowed which cases it brings.

Key takeaways

• The FCPA has two parts: anti-bribery rules covering US companies and citizens, US-listed foreign companies and anyone acting in US territory, and accounting rules for companies whose securities are listed in the US.
• Criminal fines run up to $2 million per anti-bribery violation for a company and $25 million per accounting violation, and individuals face up to 5 years (bribery) or 20 years (accounting) in prison.
• An executive order of 10 February 2025 paused new FCPA cases. DOJ guidelines of 9 June 2025 restarted enforcement but focused it on cartel links, harm to US competitors, national security and serious, individual misconduct.
• The law itself has not changed. DOJ resolved new corporate FCPA cases in 2026 and still prosecutes individuals, and the limitation periods of five and six years can outlast a single administration.

What is the FCPA?

Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977 after revelations of widespread corruption in the wake of Watergate, when the SEC discovered that more than 400 US companies had paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes. According to the Justice Department’s FCPA page, its anti-bribery provisions have since 1977 applied to all US persons and certain foreign issuers of securities, and 1998 amendments extended them to foreign firms and people who act in furtherance of a corrupt payment while in US territory.

In practice the statute covers three groups:

• Issuers: companies, US or foreign, with securities listed on a US exchange or that must file reports with the SEC, plus their officers, directors, employees and agents.
• Domestic concerns: US citizens, nationals and residents, and businesses organised under US law or based in the US.
• Others acting in the US: foreign companies and individuals who do something in furtherance of a bribe while in US territory, such as sending an email or wiring money through a US bank.

Enforcement is split. The DOJ brings criminal cases and civil cases against non-issuers. The SEC brings civil cases against issuers. The official guide to both is the FCPA Resource Guide, now in its second edition.

What do the FCPA anti-bribery rules prohibit?

The anti-bribery provisions make it unlawful to corruptly offer, pay, promise or authorise the giving of anything of value to a foreign official to influence an official act or secure an improper advantage, in order to obtain or retain business. Each element matters:

• Anything of value is not limited to cash. Travel, gifts, jobs or internships for relatives and charitable donations can all count.
• Foreign official includes officers and employees of state-owned or state-controlled companies, such as national oil companies or public hospitals, as well as ministers and civil servants.
• Payments through others are covered. A company is liable if it pays an agent, distributor or customs broker knowing that some of the money will go to an official. The Resource Guide lists red flags such as excessive commissions and vague consulting agreements.
• Corrupt intent is required. An honest mistake about an invoice is not a bribe, but deliberately ignoring red flags can be.

The statute has one narrow exception, for “facilitating or expediting” payments to speed up routine governmental action, such as processing visas or providing utilities, and two affirmative defences: that the payment was lawful under the written laws of the foreign country, and that it was a reasonable and bona fide expenditure, such as travel costs, directly related to promoting products or performing a contract. These are narrower than they sound, and the UK has no equivalent exception. Our explainer on quid pro quo covers how prosecutors prove the exchange behind a bribe, and our guide to what lobbying is explains where lawful influence ends.

What do the FCPA accounting provisions require?

The accounting provisions apply only to issuers. They require companies to keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect their transactions, and to maintain a system of internal accounting controls. They matter because a bribe almost always has to be disguised as something else in the accounts, such as a consulting fee, a commission or a “reinspection fee”. A company can breach the accounting provisions even where no bribery charge is brought, and the SEC has often used them that way. A good corporate compliance programme is built around these two duties.

What are the penalties for violating the FCPA?

The Resource Guide sets out the statutory maximums per violation:

Two points stand out. First, fines imposed on individuals may not be paid by their employer. Second, the Alternative Fines Act is why corporate resolutions can run far beyond the per-violation caps. One of the largest involved Airbus, which in January 2020 agreed to pay more than $3.9 billion in combined penalties to US, French and UK authorities over bribery and export control violations. Companies may also face debarment from government contracts, independent compliance monitors and follow-on shareholder suits.

What changed in FCPA enforcement in 2025?

On 10 February 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14209, “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security”. It told the Attorney General to stop starting new FCPA investigations for 180 days unless she made an individual exception, to review existing cases and to issue revised guidelines. Days earlier, an Attorney General memo had told the DOJ’s FCPA Unit to prioritise bribery linked to cartels and transnational criminal organisations.

The revised guidelines arrived on 9 June 2025 in a memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, “Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act”. It tells prosecutors to weigh four factors:

1. Cartels and transnational criminal organisations: whether the misconduct is linked to their operations.
2. Fair opportunities for US companies: whether bribery cost specific, identifiable US businesses a fair chance to compete.
3. US national security: for example, bribery involving defence, intelligence or critical infrastructure.
4. Serious misconduct: strong signs of corrupt intent tied to particular individuals, such as substantial bribes or efforts to conceal them.

The memo says investigations “shall not focus on alleged misconduct involving routine business practices”, tells prosecutors to concentrate on individuals rather than attributing “nonspecific malfeasance to corporate structures”, and requires every new FCPA investigation to be authorised by the head of the Criminal Division or a more senior official.

What does FCPA enforcement look like in 2026?

Enforcement is smaller and more targeted, but it has not stopped. Key developments so far:

• One corporate policy for all of DOJ. On 10 March 2026 the Justice Department adopted a department-wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy. A company that voluntarily self-discloses, fully cooperates, remediates and has no aggravating circumstances can receive a declination if it pays disgorgement, forfeiture and restitution. “Near miss” companies can get a non-prosecution agreement and a 50% to 75% fine reduction.
• Declinations with disgorgement. In March 2026 DOJ declined to prosecute a medical device group over payments to a physician at a French public hospital, with the company agreeing to disgorge $1.2 million.
• A cartel-linked resolution. On 17 July 2026 the agricultural company Scoular agreed to a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and to pay more than $10 million over bribes paid through customs brokers to Mexican border officials from 2013 to 2019, about $2,000 per train. DOJ said some of the money benefited people tied to a cartel, which Scoular did not know.
• Individual trials continue. Juries convicted defendants on FCPA charges in February and August 2026, and courts have handed down prison sentences in older cases.
• Courts are testing DOJ’s retreat. When DOJ moved in 2026 to drop a long-running case over an alleged bribery scheme linked to a solar power project in India, the federal judge in Brooklyn dismissed the fraud counts against the defendants who had appeared but questioned whether the FCPA counts really fell outside the June 2025 guidelines. In September DOJ asked the Second Circuit to order the dismissal.
• The SEC has gone quiet. An analysis of SEC data by the law firm King and Spalding found six standalone FCPA actions in fiscal year 2025 and none between October 2025 and March 2026.

The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, enacted in 2023 and amended in 2024, now also makes it a US crime for a foreign official to demand or accept a bribe from US companies and other covered businesses, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. No public FEPA prosecutions had been reported by early 2026. For employees who see bribery from the inside, our guide on becoming a whistleblower covers the risks and protections.

How does the FCPA compare with the UK Bribery Act and EU rules?

The UK Bribery Act 2010 is broader in several ways. It covers bribery of private individuals as well as officials, it punishes receiving a bribe, and section 7 makes a commercial organisation liable for failing to prevent bribery by people acting for it, subject to a defence of “adequate procedures”. The Serious Fraud Office says facilitation payments are bribes and are illegal “regardless of their size or frequency”. Individuals face up to 10 years in prison, and companies an unlimited fine.

In the EU, Directive (EU) 2026/1021 on combating corruption was published in the Official Journal on 11 May 2026. It sets common offences across member states (except Denmark) and requires company fines of up to 5% of worldwide turnover or €40 million for bribery. Member states have 24 months to put most of it into national law.

What should companies do in 2026?

• Keep the programme running. A narrower DOJ focus is not a repeal, and conduct today can be prosecuted for five or six years.
• Look hard at third parties such as customs brokers, agents and distributors, especially in regions with cartel activity.
• Map exposure in the UK and EU, where enforcement is moving the other way.
• Decide early on self-disclosure, since the March 2026 policy rewards companies that come forward first. In-house counsel usually lead that decision with outside investigators, often after the kind of internal review described in our guide to federal white-collar investigations.

Frequently asked questions

Is the FCPA still enforced in 2026?

Yes. The executive order paused enforcement only while DOJ wrote new guidelines, which were issued in June 2025. DOJ has since announced corporate resolutions, declinations and individual convictions, although it now focuses on fewer, more serious cases.

Who does the FCPA apply to?

US citizens, residents and businesses; companies with securities listed in the US and their employees and agents; and foreign companies or individuals who act in furtherance of a bribe while in US territory. Foreign officials themselves are now covered by a separate law, FEPA.

Are gifts and hospitality illegal under the FCPA?

Not automatically. Reasonable, transparent hospitality connected to promoting products or performing a contract can fall within an affirmative defence. The June 2025 guidelines also steer prosecutors away from routine business courtesies. Lavish or secret benefits aimed at influencing an official remain risky.

What is the difference between the FCPA and the UK Bribery Act?

The Bribery Act covers private as well as public bribery, has no exception for facilitation payments and creates a corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery. The FCPA focuses on foreign officials but adds detailed accounting duties for listed companies.

Can individuals go to prison for FCPA violations?

Yes. Individuals face up to five years per anti-bribery violation and up to 20 years for wilful accounting violations, and their employer cannot pay their fines. The 2025 guidelines specifically tell prosecutors to focus on individual wrongdoing.

What is the FCPA statute of limitations?

For criminal cases it is five years for anti-bribery offences and six years for accounting offences, though it can be suspended while US prosecutors seek evidence from abroad. SEC claims for civil penalties are generally subject to a five-year limit.

This article is general information about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related laws and is not legal advice. Enforcement policy has changed quickly since 2025 and may change again, so companies and individuals facing a bribery issue should take advice from a qualified lawyer in each country involved.