15 U.S.C. § 78dd–1
Prohibited foreign trade practices by issuers
United States · Title 15 — COMMERCE AND TRADE · Status: effective
Cite this
- Citation
- 15 U.S.C. § 78dd–1, Prohibited foreign trade practices by issuers, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/440065
- Permanent ID
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42c00272daa9ec260ac708b2c0de5583272f5654b9eb956e5da9a339bb350fc5
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Full text
It shall be unlawful for any issuer which has a class of securities registered pursuant to section 78l of this title or which is required to file reports under section 78o(d) of this title, or for any officer, director, employee, or agent of such issuer or any stockholder thereof acting on behalf of such issuer, to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of an offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to—
any foreign official for purposes of—
any foreign political party or official thereof or any candidate for foreign political office for purposes of—
any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given, or promised, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, to any foreign political party or official thereof, or to any candidate for foreign political office, for purposes of—
Subsections (a) and (g) shall not apply to any facilitating or expediting payment to a foreign official, political party, or party official the purpose of which is to expedite or to secure the performance of a routine governmental action by a foreign official, political party, or party official.
It shall be an affirmative defense to actions under subsection (a) or (g) that—
the payment, gift, offer, or promise of anything of value that was made, was a reasonable and bona fide expenditure, such as travel and lodging expenses, incurred by or on behalf of a foreign official, party, party official, or candidate and was directly related to—
Not later than one year after August 23, 1988, the Attorney General, after consultation with the Commission, the Secretary of Commerce, the United States Trade Representative, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury, and after obtaining the views of all interested persons through public notice and comment procedures, shall determine to what extent compliance with this section would be enhanced and the business community would be assisted by further clarification of the preceding provisions of this section and may, based on such determination and to the extent necessary and appropriate, issue—
For purposes of this section:
For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term “public international organization” means—
A person’s state of mind is “knowing” with respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result if—
The term “routine governmental action” means only an action which is ordinarily and commonly performed by a foreign official in—
Legislative history
The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone.
- An Act to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to make it unlawful for an issuer of securities registered pursuant to section 12 of such Act or an issuer required to file reports pursuant to section 15(d) of such Act to make certain payments to foreign officials and other foreign persons, to require such issuers to maintain accurate records, and for other purposes.House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally
- Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally
- International Anti-Bribery and Fair Competition Act of 1998House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally