The Justice Department has closed about half of its open investigations into bribery by U.S. businesses overseas, but plans to initiate prosecutions to more narrowly focus on misconduct that hurts the country’s capacity to compete with foreign companies, officials said on Tuesday.
President Trump signed an executive order in February pausing all of the department’s investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, pending a review of enforcement policies by Todd Blanche, the department’s No. 2 official.
Good government groups criticized the freeze as the elimination of guardrails needed to prevent corporate abuses. That move coincided with the closing of investigations into the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and the medical device maker Stryker, among others.
But the shift announced on Tuesday represents a public recognition that the department still has an important role in enforcing the act, and is likely in some instances to aggressively pursue violations….