Grease the palms, go to jail

The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is designed to prevent bribery, a business practice which is as old as – well, as old as the oldest profession, I would say. Whatever one may think of the US’s attempt to forbid a practice which is commonly accepted in much of the world, the US Department of Justice is apparently quite serious about it, having stepped up enforcement significantly of late, even with respect to foreign subsidiaries of US companies. Problem is, many US companies aren’t doing much to comply, and many UK companies apparently don’t even know about the law and its impact on them.

image from Wikimedia Commons, Eugene Pivovarov