Media: Donald Trump allowed bribing foreign officials

The new US administration believes that the anti-corruption law deprived American companies abroad of competitive advantage.

This is reported by NTV.

It is noted that Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to stop enforcing the US anti-corruption law that prohibits Americans from bribing foreign government officials for business advantages.

"This will mean much more business for America," the president said in the Oval Office after signing an order directing US Attorney General Pam Bondi to suspend enforcement of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"This law looks good on paper, but in practice, it's a disaster," Trump said. "It means that if an American moves to another country and starts doing business there legally or otherwise, it almost guarantees an investigation and prosecution. Because of this, no one wants to deal with Americans."

"US national security depends on American companies gaining strategic commercial advantages globally. And President Trump is stopping the excessive enforcement of the law that made American companies less competitive," the White House statement says.

The anti-corruption law was the basis for some of the US Department of Justice's most high-profile cases, including a guilty plea agreement reached last year with commodity trader Trafigura regarding bribes the company paid in Brazil to state oil company Petrobras.

In 2022, a former senior McKinsey partner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the law in connection with a massive corruption scandal involving former South African President Jacob Zuma's administration.

And in October last year, US defense contractor RTX agreed to pay more than $950 million over charges of bribing a Qatari official to sell weapons to that country.