Washington is increasingly turning U.S. anti-corruption enforcement into an instrument of economic statecraft—a shift that threatens to undercut decades of American efforts to fight illicit activity abroad, according to analysis by three academics published in Foreign Affairs. 

The decision by President Donald Trump early in his second term to pause enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for six months led to an influx of investors buying up the shares of companies that had been under investigation for paying bribes abroad. Within weeks, the average firm suspected or convicted of bribery gained $6.5 billion in market value—a sum far exceeding typical FCPA penalties, according to the article. 

But when enforcement resumed in June 2025, the analysis notes, investors did not reverse course. Instead, investment in “tainted” firms continued rising through the rest of 2025 and into early 2026, though almost exclusively for U.S.-based companies. 

By contrast, foreign companies with comparable histories of suspected corruption saw little uplift, suggesting markets expect selective enforcement that shields U.S. firms while maintaining leverage over foreign competitors, the authors argue. 

Such one-sided enforcement could undermine extraterritorial accountability over the long term. The shift opens the possibility that the FCPA is increasingly used as a cudgel for foreign-policy ends, making other nations more reluctant to take part in U.S. anti-corruption efforts they see as partisan and self-serving, according to the article. 

The Trump administration’s distaste for the FCPA extends beyond the enforcement suspension. In May, the Justice Department disclosed that it would decline enforcement of the law when firms promptly report misconduct and cooperate with federal prosecutors. The policy, which extends to repeat offenders, “will likely encourage firms to bribe abroad because disclosing misconduct is enough to reduce their risk of punishment,” the authors said. 

When the enforcement stay ended in June, the DOJ released revised enforcement guidelines that prioritize FCPA cases tied to drug cartels and transnational criminal groups, marking a stark shift away from the corporate misconduct the law historically targeted.  

The end result: “the FCPA is now a less credible threat than it used to be to U.S. firms that engage in bribery overseas,” the academics said.

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