State attorneys general may take the lead on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement in light of the Donald Trump administration's pause on enforcing the act, attorneys at Crowell & Moring said in an April 14 alert. There's good reason to believe states will follow California's lead in announcing that it will enforce anti-foreign bribery efforts, the firm said.
In an April 9 memorandum, President Donald Trump instructed all "executive departments and agencies" to "identify certain categories of unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations within 60 days" and establish plans to repeal them. The memo told the agencies to review their regulations for compliance with 10 recent Supreme Court decisions, the first of which is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the decision eliminating the concept of deferring to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
The Liberty Justice Center, a conservative litigation firm, issued a call for plaintiffs to challenge President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. The group is looking to challenge this use of IEEPA "under the major questions and nondelegation doctrines."
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with U.K. Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds and the British prime minister's Special Adviser on Business and Investment Varun Chandra on March 18 to discuss a potential bilateral trade deal, the Commerce Department announced. The meeting follows U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to the White House last month. Lutnick expressed the Trump administration's desire for a trade deal, and Commerce said efforts to develop it "will continue to unfold over the coming days and weeks."
Akin Gump announced the official launch of its national security and global investigations team on March 13. The practice group will work on "cross-border criminal, civil administrative and congressional investigations and voluntary self-disclosures relating to potential sanctions, export control, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws and regulations," the firm said.
The Trump administration plans to "aggressively" enforce the False Claims Act, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston said during the Federal Bar Association's qui tam conference last week, attorneys at McGuire Woods said. While most FCA enforcement action is taken in the field of healthcare, Granston said that DOJ will center future FCA enforcement on other Trump policy priorities, including customs fraud and "illegal foreign trade practices."
President Donald Trump on Feb. 10 instructed the attorney general to cease from opening any new investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for 180 days so that the Office of the Attorney General can issue new guidelines for FCPA enforcement that "prioritize American interests" and U.S. "economic competitiveness." In the order, Trump said the FCPA has been "abused" and "impedes the United States' foreign policy objectives."
President Donald Trump is poised to roll back enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act until Attorney General Pam Bondi can issue new enforcement guidelines, Bloomberg reported Feb. 10. Trump is expected to sign an executive order halting FCPA enforcement until all current and past actions are reviewed and the guidelines are issued. A fact sheet being drafted by the administration says "U.S. companies are harmed by FCPA overenforcement because they are prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field," according to the report.
The U.S. could use the False Claims Act to more aggressively combat tariff evasion, attorneys at Ropes & Gray said in a Feb. 3 alert. Companies should "carefully scrutinize their import policies and procedures to ensure they are adhering to all applicable laws," the firm said, adding that importers should ensure that they have "appropriate avenues" for internal and external parties to bring confidential reports to the company's attention.
President Donald Trump nominated William Kimmitt, current partner at Kirkland & Ellis, to serve as head of the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. Kimmitt served in the first Trump administration as counsel to the U.S. trade representative and was involved in the implementation of the USMCA. At Kirkland & Ellis, Kimmitt is a litigation partner, focusing on international trade and Section 337 unfair import investigation proceedings.