The U.S. is the world's bribery cop. Is that about to change?

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The U.S. has been policing bribery all over the world for nearly half a century using a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But now, President Trump has said that this anti-corruption law is crippling American businesses. Since taking office, his administration has reduced the number of investigators, killed some cases, and changed the rules.

In this episode, we look at the FCPA case against Glencore, a large commodity trading company, found guilty in 2022 for paying cash bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts all over the world.

And we go back to the inception of the law, a time when using bribes to pay off foreign officials was considered "grease in the wheels" - a reasonable (if unethical) way to get business done.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Beras. It was produced by Willa Rubin. It was fact-checked by Emily Crawford with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from the Financial Times.
0:02.7	The FT News Briefing brings you the top stories in business and finance
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0:14.7	Listen to the FT News Briefing, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:25.1	Now, this doesn't happen very often, but back in 2011, the world welcomed a new country,
0:32.1	the Republic of South Sudan.
0:34.1	A nation is born.
0:35.7	The scene in South Sudan is nothing less than electric.
0:39.6	After a brutal civil war that went on for decades, the people of South Sudan voted for
0:45.2	independence from Sudan.
0:47.4	I feel good, man. I feel good.
0:50.6	This is the new flag that will be recognized by different world states.
0:56.8	South Sudan declares independence raised the flag of the 9th of July of 2011.
1:04.3	This is Javier Blas.
1:05.9	He covers energy and commodities for Bloomberg.
1:08.6	Javier was watching this vote because South Sudan has a lot of oil.
1:14.9	And well, everyone, every diplomat, everyone in Africa is celebrating this success.
1:20.8	There are some commodity traders who are thinking,
1:24.1	aha, new independent country, lots of oil, they need money we want to buy, how we get our hands on the South Sudanese oil.
1:34.3	Javier co-authored a book called The World for Sale, Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources.
	...

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