Conservative Commentator Greg Jarrett Bungles The FCPA
During the Trump administration there were certain things written about Trump and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that were just plain absurd, legally inaccurate, and/or completely devoid of context. (See here and here for instance).
Writing absurd and legally inaccurate things about the FCPA was not just a hobby of liberal media outlets during a Republican administration.
Joe Biden, through Hunter Biden, has been the focus of much scrutiny by conservative media.
Greg Jarrett earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and has been an adjunct professor of law. He is currently a Fox News legal analyst and commentator.
If there is anyone who should be able to recognize the general applicability of a statute, if would seemingly be a law graduate, former law professor, and current legal analyst for a major media outlet.
Complete Rubbish
There are some things written about the Foreign Corrupt Practices that are so lacking in FCPA knowledge, so lacking in attention to detail, and so lacking in relevant FCPA context – as to be complete rubbish.
This dealbreaker.com piece (which describes itself as providing original commentary about the financial industry) by Jon Shazar is complete rubbish.
The article is titled “Feel Free To Filter Your Bribes Through Foreign-Government Owned Investment Banks” with the teaser “Bill Barr sees absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of thing” and states:
Potpourri
Deficient FCPA Reporting
In this New York Times article, journalists once again demonstrate their deficient FCPA knowledge. In reference to Microsoft’s possible purchase of TikTok and the potential of the U.S. Treasury receiving a portion of the sale, the article states: “In essence, the president is promising to orchestrate the kind of pay-to-play bounty that the United States prohibits companies from making to governments of other countries under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
However, the FCPA does not prohibit business organizations from providing things of value to foreign governments – just foreign officials. As stated in the U.S. government FCPA Guidance “”The FCPA prohibits payments to foreign officials, not to foreign governments.”
It’s Time Again To Take A Deep Breath
These pages have covered Donald Trump and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since 2012 (see here) and long before he was President (see here and here).
Days after Trump was elected President in November 2016, this post was titled “Let’s All Take a Deep Breath When It Comes To FCPA Enforcement In The Trump Administration.” When there was not a corporate FCPA enforcement action during the (better sit down for this one – first four months of the Trump Administration) this post was titled “Let’s All Take A Deep Breath, Gaps In FCPA Enforcement Are Common.”
As highlighted below, it is time again for everyone to take a deep breath when it comes to the FCPA and Trump.
Friday Roundup
False, lack of context, stay in your lane, and for the reading stack. It’s all here in the Friday roundup.
False
At times it seems like we live in a post-factual world. If a fact gets in the way of a narrative, you just ignore the fact, pretend it doesn’t exist, and hope nobody calls you out on it.