Public Corruption

Corruption Public Official

Public corruption, the FBI'south acme criminal investigative priority, poses a primal threat to our national security and way of life. It can affect everything from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods protected to how verdicts are handed down in courts to how public infrastructure such equally roads and schools are congenital. It also takes a significant toll on the public's pocketbooks by siphoning off revenue enhancement dollars—information technology is estimated that public abuse costs the U.S. government and the public billions of dollars each year. The FBI is uniquely situated to combat corruption, with the skills and capabilities to run complex hugger-mugger operations and surveillance.

Overview

The Bureau'due south Public Corruption program focuses on:

  • Investigating violations of federal police by public officials at the federal, state, and local levels of regime;
  • Overseeing the nationwide investigation of allegations of fraud related to federal government procurement, contracts, and federally funded programs;
  • Combating the threat of public abuse along the nation's borders and points of entry in order to decrease the country'south vulnerability to drug and weapons trafficking, conflicting smuggling, espionage, and terrorism.
  • Addressing environmental crime, election fraud, and matters concerning the federal government procurement, contracts, and federally funded programs.

In 2008, the FBI created the International Corruption Unit (ICU) to oversee the increasing number of investigations involving global fraud against the U.S. government and the abuse of federal public officials outside of the continental U.S. involving U.S. funds, persons, businesses, etc. The ICU's tasks include:

  • Overseeing the Bureau'southward Foreign Decadent Practices Human action (FCPA) and antitrust cases;
  • Maintaining operational oversight of several International Contract Corruption Chore Forces, which investigate and prosecute individuals and firms engaged in bribery, illegal gratuities, contract extortion, bid rigging, collusion, conflicts of interest, product exchange, items and/or services invoiced without delivery, theft, diversion of goods, and individual and corporate conspiracies on every level of U.S. authorities operations.

No other law enforcement agency has attained the kind of success the FBI has achieved in combating corruption. This success is due largely to the cooperation and coordination from a number of federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to combat public abuse. These partnerships include, but are not express to the Section of Justice, Agency Offices of Inspector Full general; law enforcement agencies' internal diplomacy divisions; federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory investigative agencies; and state and county prosecutor's offices.

FBI Agent Marks Progress During Corruption Case in San Juan

ABSCAM Undercover Sting

Types of Corruption

Prison Corruption

The FBI's prison corruption initiative, which began in June 2014, addresses contraband smuggling past local, state, and federal prison house officials in substitution for bribe payments. Through this initiative, the Agency works to develop and strengthen collaborative relationships with country/local corrections departments and the U.Due south. Department of Justice Office of Inspector Full general to help place prison facilities plagued with systemic abuse and employ advisable criminal investigative techniques to gainsay the threat. Prison officials and staff beingness co-opted, even if unwittingly, betrays the public trust, threatens the integrity of the justice organisation in the U.Southward., and threaten national security interests overall.

Schemes to corrupt prison officials come in a multifariousness of forms, including:

  • Testing: An offer of simple items, like prison commissary appurtenances, is made to prison officials. If accepted, the inmate confirms the official'due south administrative misstep, and so urges the official to smuggle contraband under threat of reporting the official's misconduct.
  • Active recruiting: Civilian gang members with no prior criminal history are recruited by incarcerated gang members to use to become correctional officers, with promises of additional income paid past the inmates' criminal enterprise.
  • Empathy: Prison inmates written report corrections personnel working in the facility and determine whether particular staff members are susceptible to exploitation. This ploy typically results in improper interpersonal relationships and the corrupted official's integrity being compromised to the benefit of the inmate.

Edge Corruption

The federal government is responsible for protecting approximately vii,000 miles along the U.S. border and 95,000 miles of U.Southward. shoreline, and every day, over a meg people visit the U.S. and enter through ane of the more than 300 official ports of entry into the U.S., as well as through seaports and international airports. The FBI recognizes the very real threat public corruption at our nation'southward borders and all other ports of entry pose.

Common acts of border corruption involve drug trafficking and alien smuggling. Throughout the U.Due south., the FBI has investigated corrupt authorities and police enforcement officials who accept bribes and gratuities in return for assuasive loads of drugs or aliens to laissez passer through ports of entry or checkpoints; protecting and escorting loads of contraband; overlooking contraband; providing needed documents, such as clearing papers and driver's licenses; leaking sensitive police enforcement information; and conducting unauthorized records checks.

Edge corruption potentially impacts national security as well—corrupt officers might believe they are accepting a bribe merely in return for allowing a carload of illegal aliens to enter the U.South., when they might actually be facilitating the entry of a group of terrorists. Or a corrupt official who expedites clearing paperwork or helps obtain an identification document in render for a bribe or gratuity might really be facilitating an operation of a terrorist cell, strange counterintelligence network, or criminal enterprise.

Oftentimes the Bureau brings its expertise to touch on joint investigations with its partners in federal, state, and local law enforcement. Many of these investigations involve FBI border corruption job forces and working groups located in nearly two dozen cities forth our borders. Members of these task forces and working groups stand up shoulder to shoulder to gainsay decadent officials, both operationally and through the sharing of intelligence and information, forth with the use of trend analysis, lessons learned, and best practices.

Federally, the FBI coordinates investigative efforts forth the borders with the Department of Homeland Security Function of Inspector General; Community and Border Protection Internal Affairs; Transportation Security Administration; Drug Enforcement Administration; Agency of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Part of Professional Responsibleness.

International Abuse

The FBI's International Abuse Unit (ICU) is the leading investigative entity in combating foreign corruption. ICU manages five programs:

  • Strange Blackmail/Foreign Corrupt Practices Deed (FCPA)
  • Strange Corruption/Kleptocracy Program
  • Antitrust
  • International Fraud Against the Government
  • International Corruption of Federal Public Officials

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

ICU has management responsibility and programme oversight for FBI investigations under the FCPA. The 1977 legislation has two main provisions. The starting time deals with bribery of strange officials, and the second deals with accounting transparency requirements under the Securities Commutation Act. The dual elements were designed to facilitate parallel criminal and ceremonious enforcement to stalk abuse and promote fair business organization practices worldwide. The anti-blackmail provision makes it illegal for U.S. companies and certain foreign companies to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business. The bribes tin can exist in the form of coin or any other items of value. The accounting provision of the FCPA focuses on the Securities Exchange Act requirements applying to all foreign companies whose securities are listed on the U.South. stock exchanges and U.S. companies.

The United States cannot charge the strange official under the FCPA; rather, the United states of america works together with international law enforcement partners to investigate U.Due south. subjects who are complicit in paying bribes to strange officials. The supply and demand equation of bribe paying and receiving illustrates the FCPA and kleptocracy violations every bit 2 sides of the same coin. For more information, run across this detailed FCPA Resource Guide.

Kleptocracy

Kleptocracy, literally meaning "the rule past thieves," is a grade of political corruption in which the ruling government seeks personal gain and status at the expense of the governed. Through graft and embezzlement of state funds, corrupt leaders amass tremendous wealth at the expense of the broader populace. Some of the virtually egregious examples have occurred in countries with very high rates of poverty. The inherent challenge for corrupt leaders is covertly expatriating and holding money in secure locations where it can be accessed in the future. More often than not, that requires international move of funds. When transfers occur in U.S. dollars or transit the U.S. banking system, federal money laundering jurisdiction is established. The FBI initiates money laundering investigations to trace the international movement of avails and, in conjunction with foreign partners, forfeit and repatriate assets back to legitimate government in victim countries.

Antitrust

ICU has program management responsibleness for the FBI's antitrust investigations, both domestic and international, which target conspiracies among competitors to fix prices, rig bids, or allocate markets or customers. These conspiracies deprive U.Due south. consumers of true competition, an economic bedrock of our free and democratic society. Perpetrators ofttimes operate in multinational companies that savor in illegal profits at the expense of U.Due south. consumers. Stolen past cartels, the sick-gotten gains and competitive advantages reduce supply, eliminate incentives to compete by offer ameliorate and more innovative products and services, and destabilize economic markets.

International Contract Corruption

ICU has programme management responsibility over cases involving international fraud confronting the government and international corruption of federal public officials. The FBI was a co-founder of the International Contract Corruption Job Force, which was created in 2006 with the goal of addressing contract fraud concerns. These concerns stemmed from overseas U.S. authorities spending during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These cases typically involve bribery, gratuities, contract extortion, bid rigging, collusion, conflicts of interest, production substitution, items/services invoiced without commitment, diversion of appurtenances, and corporate and private conspiracies at various levels of U.Due south. government operations.

ICU'south program extends beyond the war effort to include worldwide contingency operations involving U.S. armed services deportment, foreign help and development, and humanitarian aid in whatever international region. Spending on these programs is highly susceptible to corruption and fraud by those wishing to have advantage of the cluttered circumstances surrounding these benevolent endeavors. Misuse of U.South. funds overseas poses a threat to the United states and other countries past promoting abuse inside the host nation, damaging diplomatic relations, inadvertently supporting insurgent action, and potentially strengthening criminal and terrorist organizations.

International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre


The FBI works with multiple law enforcement partners from around the earth as part of the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Center (IACCC). Established in 2017, the IACCC is a coordinated and collaborative effort to provide data, assistance and other support to agencies investigating public corruption offenses.

IACCC Participants

  • Commonwealth of australia: Australian Federal Police
  • Canada: Purple Canadian Mounted Police
  • Interpol
  • New Zealand: Serious Fraud Office, New Zealand Police
  • Singapore: Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau
  • United Kingdom: National Crime Agency
  • United States: FBI, DHS (Ice, HSI)

Larn More

  • IACCC Brochure (pdf)

ICU Initiatives

ICU oversees two large initiatives: the program management of iv international corruption squads dedicated to investigating FCPA, kleptocracy, and antitrust cases and the development of a robust private sector outreach programme.

International Corruption Squads

The international corruption squads (ICS), based in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Washington, D.C., were created to address the national impact of foreign bribery, kleptocracy, and antitrust schemes. These schemes negatively affect U.South. fiscal markets and economic growth when inadequately addressed. They are unique in nature in that they are international matters with the overt criminal acts typically occurring outside U.S. borders.  Without these dedicated resources, information technology was difficult for FBI divisions to investigate international matters that did not directly touch on their area of responsibility as clearly as other violations; therefore, the FBI created 4 international corruption squads to enable a focus on international corruption matters without draining resources from the field.

The ICS are a vital resources to gainsay international cartels and corruption. The violations addressed past the ICS are as recognized by both DOJ and the FBI as risks to U.Southward. national interests. These squads non only lend additional resource to a global threat, simply they also allow the FBI to attack the matters and use sophisticated investigative techniques that have long been successfully utilized by the FBI to address complex criminal matters.

Private Sector Outreach

In an effort to combat international corruption and cartels, the FBI's ICU created a proactive strategy that places an emphasis on strengthening existing relationships and forging new partnerships in the private sector. This is non new to the FBI. We have leveraged relationships throughout our 100+ years of investigations—from fighting organized crime to combating terrorism. Withal, we believe by fostering these vital relationships, the FBI will be able to effectively fight international corruption to ensure a off-white and competitive global market environment for companies resulting in a strong U.South. economy.