I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 4696
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a foreign official from
demanding a bribe, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY18, 2023
Ms. J
ACKSONLEE(for herself, Mr. WILSONof South Carolina, Mr. COHEN,
Mr. F
ITZPATRICK, Mr. KEATING, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. PHILLIPS, Ms. SALA-
ZAR, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. EVANS, Mr. IVEY, and
Mr. C
LEAVER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a foreign
official from demanding a bribe, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Extortion Pre-4
vention Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF DEMAND FOR BRIBE. 6
Section 201 of title 18, United States Code, is 7
amended— 8
(1) in subsection (a)— 9
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(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 1
the end; 2
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking the pe-3
riod at the end and inserting a semicolon; and 4
(C) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(4) the term ‘foreign official’ means— 6
‘‘(A)(i) any official or employee of a for-7
eign government or any department, agency, or 8
instrumentality thereof; or 9
‘‘(ii) any senior foreign political figure, as 10
defined in section 1010.605 of title 31, Code of 11
Federal Regulations, or any successor regula-12
tion; 13
‘‘(B) any official or employee of a public 14
international organization; 15
‘‘(C) any person acting in an official ca-16
pacity for or on behalf of— 17
‘‘(i) a government, department, agen-18
cy, or instrumentality described in sub-19
paragraph (A)(i); or 20
‘‘(ii) a public international organiza-21
tion; or 22
‘‘(D) any person acting in an unofficial ca-23
pacity for or on behalf of— 24
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‘‘(i) a government, department, agen-1
cy, or instrumentality described in sub-2
paragraph (A)(i); or 3
‘‘(ii) a public international organiza-4
tion; and 5
‘‘(5) the term ‘public international organization’ 6
means— 7
‘‘(A) an organization that is designated by 8
Executive order pursuant to section 1 of the 9
International Organizations Immunities Act (22 10
U.S.C. 288); or 11
‘‘(B) any other international organization 12
that is designated by the President by Execu-13
tive order for the purposes of this section, effec-14
tive as of the date of publication of such order 15
in the Federal Register.’’; and 16
(2) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(f) P
ROHIBITION OFDEMAND FOR ABRIBE.— 18
‘‘(1) O
FFENSE.—It shall be unlawful for any 19
foreign official or person selected to be a foreign of-20
ficial to corruptly demand, seek, receive, accept, or 21
agree to receive or accept, directly or indirectly, any-22
thing of value personally or for any other person or 23
nongovernmental entity, by making use of the mails 24
or any means or instrumentality of interstate com-25
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merce, from any person (as defined in section 104A 1
of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (15 2
U.S.C. 78dd–3), except that that definition shall be 3
applied without regard to whether the person is an 4
offender) while in the territory of the United States, 5
from an issuer (as defined in section 3(a) of the Se-6
curities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)), 7
or from a domestic concern (as defined in section 8
104 of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 9
(15 U.S.C. 78dd–2)), in return for— 10
‘‘(A) being influenced in the performance 11
of any official act; 12
‘‘(B) being induced to do or omit to do any 13
act in violation of the official duty of such for-14
eign official or person; or 15
‘‘(C) conferring any improper advantage, 16
in connection with obtaining or retaining business 17
for or with, or directing business to, any person. 18
‘‘(2) P
ENALTIES.—Any person who violates 19
paragraph (1) shall be fined not more than 20
$250,000 or 3 times the monetary equivalent of the 21
thing of value, imprisoned for not more than 15 22
years, or both. 23
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‘‘(3) JURISDICTION.—An offense under para-1
graph (1) shall be subject to extraterritorial Federal 2
jurisdiction. 3
‘‘(4) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 4
date of enactment of the Foreign Extortion Preven-5
tion Act, and annually thereafter, the Attorney Gen-6
eral shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary 7
of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary 8
of the House of Representatives, and post on the 9
publicly available website of the Department of Jus-10
tice, a report— 11
‘‘(A) focusing, in part, on demands by for-12
eign officials for bribes from entities domiciled 13
or incorporated in the United States, and the 14
efforts of foreign governments to prosecute such 15
cases; 16
‘‘(B) addressing United States diplomatic 17
efforts to protect entities domiciled or incor-18
porated in the United States from foreign brib-19
ery, and the effectiveness of those efforts in 20
protecting such entities; 21
‘‘(C) summarizing major actions taken 22
under this section in the previous year, includ-23
ing enforcement actions taken and penalties im-24
posed; 25
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‘‘(D) evaluating the effectiveness of the 1
Department of Justice in enforcing this section; 2
and 3
‘‘(E) detailing what resources or legislative 4
action the Department of Justice needs to en-5
sure adequate enforcement of this section. 6
‘‘(5) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—This sub-7
section shall not be construed as encompassing con-8
duct that would violate section 30A of the Securities 9
Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78dd–1) or sec-10
tion 104 or 104A of the Foreign Corrupt Practices 11
Act of 1977 (15 U.S.C. 78dd–2; 15 U.S.C. 78dd– 12
3) whether pursuant to a theory of direct liability, 13
conspiracy, complicity, or otherwise.’’. 14
Æ
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