Foreign Extortion Prevention Act
Bill: S.3137 | Sponsor: Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Foreign Extortion Prevention Act
This bill establishes a federal criminal offense involving bribery by foreign officials.
Specifically, the bill makes it a crime for foreign officials to demand or accept anything of value personally or for another person or a nongovernmental entity to influence the performance of an official act or otherwise confer an improper advantage.
The bill explicitly grants extraterritorial jurisdiction over the offense.
A violation is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to 15 years, or both.
Finally, the bill establishes a Victims of Kleptocracy Fund in the Treasury and directs fines and penalties for violations to be deposited into the fund for anti-corruption initiatives.

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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Extortion Prevention Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF DEMAND FOR BRIBE.

    Section 201 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting a semicolon; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) the term `foreign official' means--
                    ``(A) any official or employee of a foreign 
                government or any department, agency, or 
                instrumentality thereof;
                    ``(B) any official or employee of a public 
                international organization;
                    ``(C) any person acting in an official capacity for 
                or on behalf of any such government or department, 
                agency, or instrumentality, or for or on behalf of any 
                such public international organization; or
                    ``(D) any person acting in an unofficial capacity 
                for or on behalf of and with authorization from any 
                such government or department, agency, or 
                instrumentality, or for or on behalf of and with 
                authorization from any such public international 
                organization; and
            ``(5) the term `public international organization' means--
                    ``(A) an organization that is designated by 
                Executive order pursuant to section 1 of the 
                International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 
                288); or
                    ``(B) any other international organization that is 
                designated by the President by Executive order for the 
                purposes of this section, effective as of the date of 
                publication of such order in the Federal Register.''; 
                and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f) Prohibition of Demand for a Bribe.--
            ``(1) Offense.--It shall be unlawful for any foreign 
        official or person selected to be a foreign official to 
        corruptly demand, seek, receive, accept, or agree to receive or 
        accept, directly or indirectly, anything of value personally or 
        for any other person or non-governmental entity, in or 
        affecting interstate commerce, in return for--
                    ``(A) being influenced in the performance of any 
                official act;
                    ``(B) being induced to do or omit to do any act in 
                violation of the official duty of such official or 
                person; or
                    ``(C) conferring any improper advantage,
        in connection with obtaining or retaining business for or with, 
        or directing business to, any person.
            ``(2) Penalties.--Any person who violates paragraph (1) 
        shall be fined not more than $250,000 or 3 times the monetary 
        equivalent of the thing of value, imprisoned for not more than 
        15 years, or both.
            ``(3) Transfer.--Except for costs related to the 
        administration and enforcement of the Foreign Extortion 
        Prevention Act, all fines and penalties imposed against a 
        person under paragraph (2), whether pursuant to a criminal 
        prosecution, enforcement proceeding, deferred prosecution 
        agreement, non-prosecution agreement, a declination to 
        prosecute or enforce, a civil penalty, or any other resolution, 
        shall be deposited in the Victims of Kleptocracy Fund 
        established under paragraph (7).
            ``(4) Jurisdiction.--An offense under paragraph (1) shall 
        be subject to extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction.
            ``(5) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        enactment of the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, and annually 
        thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee 
        on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the 
        Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, and post on the 
        publicly available website of the Department of Justice, a 
        report--
                    ``(A) providing an overview of the scale and nature 
                of bribery involving foreign officials, including an 
                analysis of where these crimes are most likely to be 
                committed;
                    ``(B) focusing, in part, on demands by foreign 
                officials for bribes from United States domiciled or 
                incorporated entities, and the efforts of foreign 
                governments to prosecute such cases;
                    ``(C) addressing United States diplomatic efforts 
                to protect United States domiciled or incorporated 
                entities from foreign bribery, and the effectiveness of 
                those efforts in protecting such entities;
                    ``(D) summarizing major actions taken under this 
                section in the previous year, including enforcement 
                actions taken and penalties imposed;
                    ``(E) evaluating the effectiveness of the 
                Department of Justice in enforcing this section;
                    ``(F) detailing what resources or legislative 
                action the Department of Justice need to ensure 
                adequate enforcement of this section; and
                    ``(G) studying the efficacy of mutual legal 
                assistance treaties and how they can be improved or 
                built upon in multilateral fora, including the 
                identification of legal and policy issues that are 
                delaying prompt responses.
            ``(6) Annual publication of mutual legal assistance treaty 
        data.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the 
        Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, and annually thereafter, the 
        Attorney General shall publish on the website of the Department 
        of Justice--
                    ``(A) the number of requests for mutual legal 
                assistance made to the Department of Justice from 
                foreign governments during the preceding year;
                    ``(B) the number of requests for mutual legal 
                assistance returned for noncompliance during the 
                preceding year;
                    ``(C) the reason or reasons each request for mutual 
                legal assistance returned for noncompliance was so 
                returned;
                    ``(D) the number of requests for mutual legal 
                assistance processed by the Department of Justice 
                during the preceding year;
                    ``(E) the median length of time taken to process a 
                request for mutual legal assistance by the Department 
                of Justice;
                    ``(F) the number of requests for mutual legal 
                assistance that have been pending or not completely 
                fulfilled within 6 months of receipt and the number of 
                requests for mutual legal assistance that have been 
                pending or not completely fulfilled within one year or 
                longer of receipt; and
                    ``(G) the number of outreach efforts by the 
                Department of Justice to explain how foreign countries 
                can receive mutual legal assistance.
            ``(7) Victims of kleptocracy fund.--
                    ``(A) In general.--There is established in the 
                United States Treasury a fund to be known as the 
                `Victims of Kleptocracy Fund'.
                    ``(B) Availability of amounts.--Amounts deposited 
                into the Victims of Kleptocracy Fund in accordance with 
                paragraph (3) or any other provision of law shall be 
                available to the Attorney General, without fiscal year 
                limitation or need for subsequent appropriation, only 
                for the purposes of--
                            ``(i) the International Criminal 
                        Investigative Training Assistance Program;
                            ``(ii) the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery 
                        Initiative;
                            ``(iii) the Office of Overseas 
                        Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and 
                        Training; and
                            ``(iv) the Office of International Affairs, 
                        including for the hiring of personnel to speed 
                        processing of requests for mutual legal 
                        assistance.
            ``(8) Rule of construction.--This subsection shall not be 
        construed as encompassing conduct that would violate section 
        30A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78dd-1) 
        or section 104 or 104A of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 
        1977 (15 U.S.C. 78dd-2; 15 U.S.C. 78dd-3) whether pursuant to a 
        theory of direct liability, conspiracy, complicity, or 
        otherwise.''.
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