TLDR:
The FCPA is a US federal law prohibiting companies and individuals from bribing foreign government officials to obtain or retain business, with extraterritorial reach covering non-US companies listed on US exchanges.
FCPA Enforcement and Penalties
FCPA enforcement has accelerated significantly since 2010, with the Department of Justice and SEC pursuing both companies and individual executives. Penalties can be severe: corporate fines in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, disgorgement of profits, criminal prosecution of executives, debarment from government contracting, and mandatory corporate compliance monitors. Companies like Goldman Sachs (1MDB scandal), Airbus, and Siemens have each paid billions in FCPA-related settlements, demonstrating that the law is aggressively enforced even against major multinational corporations.