Business & Management Studies

Abstract

This study examines the 1977 United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and its recent re-interpretation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The original motivation for and concerns about the legislation are examined with particular attention to the two competing regulatory approaches at the time of the congressional debate: (1) the Criminalization Approach and (2) the Disclosure Approach. The example of the prosecution of General Cable is a primary application of the Criminalization Approach and its implications for companies that do business outside the United States. A timeline is provided of General Cable’s attempts to survive an increasingly competitive global cable marketplace and the subsequent history of the company is provided, with the conclusion that the DOJ used a new and little-advertised change in interpretation of a thirty-year old law to effectively destroy an established American company and oversee the sale of its assets to a European conglomerate.