The FCPA gets all the attention around here. But how much domestic anti-bribery enforcement is there? And how does it compare with FCPA enforcement levels?
Under the FCPA, about a dozen individuals face criminal prosecutions each year (not counting the twenty-two Africa sting defendants who shouldn’t have been indicted in the first place). What about domestic anti-bribery enforcement?
It’s not even close.
Since 1990, about 1,100 individuals have been charged each year. Around forty percent of them are federal officials. The rest are state and local officials, other government employees, those who have paid bribes, and others somehow involved with public corruption. (Under the FCPA, only bribe payers can be prosecuted; the domestic anti-bribery laws target both bribe payers and bribe takers.) For domestic prosecutions, the DOJ’s conviction rate is well above 90%.
The backlog of individuals awaiting trial on domestic public corruption charges is 473, up from 300 in 1990. That means the prosecution rate should be rising too.
To see the U.S. Census enforcement numbers, click on the thumbnail below:
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