Wikileaks And The FCPA

Will disclosures by Wikileaks ever lead to prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?

Maybe. The whistleblower site said this week that among the classified U.S. diplomatic cables it plans to publish soon will be some alleging corruption in foreign governments.

Reuters is reporting that politicians in Russia, Afghanistan, and other Central Asian nations will be named.

The U.S. government is said to be warning other countries of embarrassing allegations contained in the State Department communications.

Wikileaks said it will be releasing 2.8 million secret documents but didn’t give further details. It leaked 77,000 classified papers on the Afghan War in July and 400,000 Pentagon reports from the Iraq war last month.

It isn’t known yet if any corporations or individuals subject to the FCPA or similar laws are named in the diplomatic cables in connection with corrupt payments to foreign officials, or if past or potential FCPA enforcement actions are discussed.