America: The World’s Anti-Corruption Police

Any company that makes payments in dollars or send emails that pass through a US server like google can be sanctioned in American courts if they break American anti-corruption law. It doesn’t matter if their actions are perfectly legal in their own country. America claims that corruption hurts everyone and that their actions promote good business practice. But this anti-corruption crusade is also undeniably a way of weakening or eliminating foreign compétition, gaining valuable commercial information and funding the US treasury.

When Technip paid a kickback to the President of Nigeria to secure a contract in 1995, this form of business practice was still legal in France. In contrast, in America it was illegal. And 15 years later, Technip was fined an unprecedented $338 million. Not co-operating would have incurred even more severe consequences. In recent years, multiple foreign companies have paid hundreds of millions in fines to the US government.