Corruption crackdown

An aggressive international push to fight corruption has moved well beyond well-intention edrfhtoric and toward hard results. 

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations and enforcement actions have spiked in the last several years while investigation backlogs pile up and criminal prosecutions lead to executives serving prison sentences. Penalties, disgorgement of profits and monitoring costs have also grown appreciably. Additionally, forfeiture actions against foreign officials receiving bribes further indicate greater progress by anticorruption regulators. Two underpinning factors have driven this push: (1) a deeper desire among most developed nations to establish a level playing field for business competitors regardless of their countries of domicile and (2) the recognition by governments that corruption of any type is a destabilizing force within the international community.