Businesses (sometimes) complain that the UK anti bribery law hinders UK business in particular in emerging markets like China.

However, often this overlooks the fact that the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) outlawed the practices long before the Bribery Act was a twinkle in anyones eye.

So what.  What has any of that got to do with me?

The answer.  Statistically the US is responsible for 80% of enforcement of foreign bribery violations with penalties and sanctions running into hundreds of millions.

The US Department of Justice has earnt the moniker ‘global cop’ in their enforcement of the FCPA.

Broadly the DOJ takes the view that businesses with US operations subject their entire operations to US jurisdiction.  The US SEC who also enforce the FCPA have jurisdiction over US issuers.

On Monday Tom Fox (@tfoxlaw) wowed the audience at our offices with his FCPA 101 round up.

For those of you who would like a copy of Tom’s slide deck – please let us know and we’ll send you a copy.

For those of you who have US operations and do not know about the FCPA – find out.