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The Morning Risk Report: Justice Department Resumes Foreign-Bribery Work but Cuts Cases After Trump’s Pause
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By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal
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Good morning. The Justice Department will resume investigating foreign-bribery cases with a narrowed focus on matters that relate to U.S. strategic interests, including buttressing the ability of American firms to compete for business overseas.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the changes after a four-month review triggered by President Trump’s order earlier this year freezing corruption investigations. Trump said at the time that enforcement of a federal antibribery law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, puts American firms at a disadvantage to foreign rivals that can engage in conduct forbidden in the U.S.
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Sharpened focus: “This Justice Department has overhauled FCPA enforcement to protect American businesses and sharpen our national security focus,” Blanche wrote Tuesday on X. “We’re ending abusive overreach and closing cases that never should’ve been opened.”
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Case count slashed: The department has closed nearly half of its foreign-bribery investigations to align with new guidelines Blanche issued Tuesday, according to senior Justice Department officials. Enforcers should target schemes that hurt the ability of American companies to win business abroad, Blanche’s memo says.
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Still on the hook: Prosecutors don’t anticipate dismissing any more cases that have already been criminally charged, officials said.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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Are These Building Blocks Part of Your AI Governance Program?
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Enhanced AI governance can increase brand equity and trust, inform decision-making at the highest levels, and reduce potential remediation costs. Here are five ways to get there. Read More
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The Justice Department aims to ensure prosecutors make decisions quickly on whether to file charges to avoid lengthy and sprawling investigations, said Matthew Galeotti, head of the department’s criminal division. Photo: Getty Images
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Justice Department won’t charge companies that self-report.
Companies that voluntarily report potential wrongdoing to the U.S. Justice Department and cooperate with subsequent investigations won’t be prosecuted, a senior official said.
Matthew Galeotti, head of the department’s criminal division, said a company can expect to receive a declination to prosecute when it voluntarily discloses potential corporate misconduct to prosecutors, cooperates with a probe and remediates violations.
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Appeals court keeps Trump’s sweeping tariffs in place for now.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to keep the president’s far-reaching tariffs in effect for now but agreed to fast track its consideration of the case this summer.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit extended its earlier temporary pause of a trade court decision that found Trump exceeded his powers in imposing the tariffs.
The appeals court said it intends to hear arguments on July 31, which means the tariffs likely will remain in effect for at least the next two months.
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Criminal charges against a Russian man who allegedly used stablecoins to help his countrymen evade U.S. sanctions highlight the concerns about the cryptocurrencies, just as Congress considers legislation to regulate and legitimize them.
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The European Union’s executive arm proposed banning transactions with Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines and cutting the price cap on Russian oil as part of its latest round of sanctions against the Kremlin.
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Financial technology companies are being used widely to move illicit cash and should strengthen anti-money-laundering controls to combat the problem, a group of leading global tax enforcement authorities said.
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£140,000
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The value of artwork a London dealer sold to a suspected Hezbollah financier. The dealer was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for failing to report suspicious transactions.
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The World Bank warned that the slowdown in both the U.S. and global economies could be more severe if tariffs were increased further. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
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World Bank sees U.S. growth rate halving as tariffs slow global economy.
Economic growth in the U.S. might halve this year as a result of President Trump’s tariff policies, while the global economy is set to suffer a more modest, but still significant, slowdown, the World Bank said Tuesday.
The Washington, D.C.-based development bank said it expects the world’s largest economy to grow by just 1.4% in 2025, a sharp deceleration from the 2.8% expansion recorded in 2024. In its January report on the outlook for the global economy, the World Bank forecast a 2.3% increase in U.S. gross domestic product.
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U.S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up two days of intense talks here with what they said was a framework to get their trade truce back on track and ratchet down tensions between the two biggest economies.
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Five Western countries, including the U.K. and Canada, imposed a range of sanctions against two senior far-right Israeli cabinet members on Tuesday, saying they incited violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, a move that highlights the growing divide between Israel and some of its Western allies.
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U.S. chip restrictions won’t have an impact on Huawei Technologies, its founder has said, dismissing concerns that it will be squeezed by export controls.
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Supermarket shelves are emptying out at some stores around the country, after a cyberattack hit a major distributor to Whole Foods Market and other chains.
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