Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, recently passed away.

President Carter signed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into law in December 1977.

As chronicled in “The Story of the FCPA,” in 1975 and 1976 Congress sought to address the so-called foreign corporate payments problem from a variety of angles. The Ford administration in 1976 favored a disclosure approach as to a broad category of payments. However, key congressional leaders favored a criminalization approach as to a narrow category of payments. 

Congressional efforts to address the problem paused for the 1976 elections in which the Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter defeated Republican President Ford.

During the campaign, Carter “derided the [Ford] administration’s . . . ‘proposal to allow corporations to engage in bribery so long as they report such illegal transactions to the Department of Commerce.’”

When the 95th Congress opened after the 1976 elections, legislative efforts to address the foreign corporate payments problem soon renewed and focused on bills with criminal payment provisions. 

In December 1977, the FCPA became law. President Carter’s signing statement states in full as follows.

“I am pleased to sign into law S. 305, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and the Domestic and Foreign Investment Improved Disclosure Act of 1977. During my campaign for the Presidency, I repeatedly stressed the need for tough legislation to prohibit corporate bribery. S. 305 provides that necessary sanction.

I share Congress’s belief that bribery is ethically repugnant and competitively unnecessary. Corrupt practices between corporations and public officials overseas undermine the integrity and stability of governments and harm our relations with other countries. Recent revelations of widespread overseas bribery have eroded public confidence in our basic institutions.

This law makes corrupt payments to foreign officials illegal under United States law. It requires publicly held corporations to keep accurate books and records and establish accounting controls to prevent the use of “off-the-books” devices, which have been used to disguise corporate bribes in the past. The law
also requires more extensive disclosure of ownership of stocks registered with the [SEC].

These efforts, however, can only be fully successful in combating bribery and extortion if other countries and business itself take comparable action. Therefore, I hope progress will continue in the United Nations toward the negotiation of a treaty on illicit payments. I am also encouraged by the International Chamber of Commerce’s new Code of Ethical Business Practices.”