Financial Transparency Coalition

Greater Scrutiny of Link between U.S. Chamber and Companies Charged Under FCPA Needed, says Global Financial Integrity

Global Financial Integrity

WASHINGTON, DC – News that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. donated $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) months before the Chamber issued a proposal to relax elements of the nation’s flagship anti-corruption legislation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), highlights the need to fully understand the ties between the Chamber and companies charged under the FCPA.

According to research from watchdog organization U.S. ChamberWatch, six current or former Board Members of the Chamber or the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform—the Chamber’s legal reform advocacy arm responsible for publishing the U.S. Chamber’s FCPA amendment proposals—have FCPA charges currently pending or have already been fined between $10 million and $800 million for violations of the FCPA. Other large donors have also had to pay multi-million dollar penalties for FCPA violations.

“The public is outraged by the possible link between Murdoch’s News Corp. and the U.S. Chamber’s aggressive lobbying efforts to emasculate the FCPA, but that may only be the tip of the iceberg,” said GFI’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, Heather Lowe. “The U.S. Chamber acts at the direction of its Board and its largest donors, and the link between FCPA violations and U.S. Chamber Board membership is crystal clear.”

“It looks like the Chamber’s theory is that if its Board and other members are being prosecuted for international bribery, then the best solution is to weaken the law to make it harder to bring FCPA cases,” said Lowe. “These companies were not prosecuted for one random act of bribery, but for systemic, egregious violations of the FCPA. You don’t weaken fraud laws because more people are being prosecuted for running ponzi schemes, and you don’t weaken environmental laws because more companies are being prosecuted for chemical or oil spills. The Chamber’s drive against the FCPA is no different.”

The Daily Mail reports that the Chamber has spent more than $6 million lobbying Congress on the FCPA and other legislation during the first three months of 2011.

U.S. ChamberWatch’s list of U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform board members and large donors that have been charged and fined under the FCPA can be found here.

CORRECTION: The original press release stated that the companies listed by U.S. ChamberWatch had charges pending or had been fined between $10 million and $1.34 billion for violations of the FCPA.  Siemens AG paid a total of $1.34 billion in fines to German and U.S. authorities stemming from its 2008 foreign bribery probe, however only the $800 million paid to U.S. authorities in that case can be directly attributed to violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  The remainder is attributable to violations of German law. Thus, the actual fines levied directly for FCPA violations are between $10 million and $800 million. 

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Additional Reading:

• Press Release: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Under Attack, Global Financial Integrity, June 13, 2011
• Op-Ed: “Keeping Commitments,” GFI director Raymond Baker’s editorial in The Huffington Post on U.S. Chamber’s challenge to FCPA
• GFI’s formal submission to the June 14, 2011 Hearing on the FCPA held by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. (PDF | 104KB)
• Concerns About the U.S. Chamber Institute of Legal Reform’s Proposals for Amending the FCPA (PDF | 468 KB)
• FCPA in Context (PDF | 543 KB)

Contact:

Monique Perry Danziger
mdanziger@gfip.org
+1 202 293 0740 ext. 222

Clark Gascoigne
cgascoigne@gfip.org
+1 202 293 0740 ext. 227

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The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development addresses inequalities in the global financial system that penalize billions of people, and advocates for improved transparency and accountability.

Global Financial Integrity is a coordinating committee and founding member of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development.

For additional information please visit http://www.financialtransparency.org .