Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Luke Cass offered insights on the Foreign Extortion Prevention Technical Corrections Act, which replaced the previous Foreign Extortion Prevention Act. 

Less than a year since the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) was enacted, Congress – in an increasingly rare showing of bipartisan support and in an impressively short period of time – repealed and replaced it with the Foreign Extortion Prevention Technical Corrections Act (FEPTCA). The FEPA, signed into law by President Joe Biden on December 23, 2023, was lauded at the time for finally criminalizing a foreign official’s solicitation or receipt of a bribe and welcomed as a necessary addition to U.S. enforcement authority, which, under the FCPA, focused on the actors paying bribes rather than on those who sought or received them. The praise for the new law at the time of its passing would make revisions – beyond correcting some wayward typos – unlikely. Yet, the new law, introduced in Congress in mid-June and approved and signed by the president by the end of July, brings some substantive change. 

Click here to read the full article in the Anti-Corruption Report (subscription required.)