FCPA Statute of Limitations: What Older Bribery Records Can Still Show

The FCPA statute of limitations is generally five years for criminal anti-bribery charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Criminal accounting charges and civil recoveries can follow different periods. If you know why an agent received a payment, who approved an inflated invoice or what a coded ledger means, the age of the first payment is only part of the story. An older document may explain the purpose of later transactions or identify the people behind them. We examine the payment history and the evidence together with you.

Which FCPA Clock Applies?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act addresses both bribery and the accounting used to record a company’s business. The applicable enforcement period depends on the violation and what the government seeks to recover or require. A criminal charge, a civil penalty and recovery of the gains from wrongdoing can involve different clocks.

Congress added express SEC disgorgement authority and these SEC enforcement time limits in 2021. For an insider holding older accounting records, the kind of violation matters as well as the date of the entry. We examine that distinction with the whistleblower lawyers we bring in.

A 2022 article in the Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, How to Avoid Inadvertently Violating the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act Abroad, explains why accounting evidence has an independent role. Its analysis describes how accounting liability can remain even when all the elements of an anti-bribery violation cannot be proved. For an employee in finance, the false entry and the approval behind it deserve attention alongside the payment itself.

These are government enforcement periods. Your whistleblower award claim has a separate timetable, which we examine with the FCPA whistleblower lawyers suited to your information.

When Does Older Bribery Evidence Still Matter?

Older bribery evidence can show how an arrangement began, what an intermediary was paid to do and who understood its purpose. A contract, invoice and bank transfer each answer a different question. Their value comes from connecting the business agreement to the official’s benefit and the way the payment was recorded.

The Justice Department’s June 9, 2025 enforcement guidelines identify harm to American competitors as an enforcement priority under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If you saw a competitor buy its way into a contract, the lost business belongs in the account alongside the payment.

The evidence behind the transaction may cross several companies. The business signing the contract, the employee approving payment, the service provider and the bank beneficiary may occupy different places in the same arrangement. The end customer, government official and accounting entry complete that picture. An employee who knows which service was actually performed can explain a discrepancy that the signed contract alone leaves hidden.

That is why we look beyond the date printed at the top of an invoice. A later message may explain an earlier cash delivery, and a contract may have been backdated to make the payment look authorized. The examples below show both.

FCPA Limitations, Continuing Offense and Tolling

For criminal anti-bribery charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the general clock runs from the offense. In a continuing conspiracy, an act advancing the scheme within the enforcement period can matter to the FCPA limitations assessment.

The useful distinction for an insider is between a later act advancing the arrangement and a later document explaining an earlier act. A later act can matter to the enforcement period, while a later document can reveal what an earlier payment bought. We bring that history to FCPA whistleblower counsel so the legal assessment follows the transactions you can describe.

How Foreign Evidence and Time Abroad Affect the Clock

A court can pause the clock for up to three years while the government gathers evidence abroad under the foreign-evidence suspension law. A company under investigation can also agree to stop the clock through a tolling agreement. We examine any order or agreement with FCPA whistleblower counsel alongside the payments you can explain.

Time spent outside the United States can also matter under the SEC’s provisions for recovering wrongful gains and obtaining other covered court remedies. Those provisions exclude specified time abroad from the calculation. We bring the person’s location and the transaction dates into that assessment with whistleblower counsel.

What Older Records Show in FCPA Cases

The case documents show older transactions through the records that connected them: inflated contracts, coded ledgers, broker invoices and marketing expenses. Those are business records an insider may recognize immediately. Their contents explain why a calendar alone gives an incomplete picture.

TIGO Guatemala’s Contract and Coded Cash Ledger

Under its criminal deferred prosecution agreement, TIGO Guatemala admitted using falsified or backdated contracts, shell companies and fraudulent invoices to generate cash for bribes and reimburse earlier bribe payments. Its admitted statement of facts describes one contract plainly:

The company also admitted that, around September 5, 2018, a participant forwarded a screenshot of a ledger recording cash deliveries between December 1, 2017, and June 6, 2018. He also sent the key needed to interpret coded references to bribe payments. The screenshot’s transmission date and the dates of the deliveries described different events.

We see a company manufacturing paperwork to hide what it was buying. The person who understood the codes could explain the cash in a way the ledger alone could not. The company admitted the scheme years after those records were made.

Scoular’s Reinspection Invoices

The Justice Department’s July 2026 announcement described Scoular’s admissions under its criminal deferred prosecution agreement. The company admitted bribery involving Mexican inspections of agricultural shipments during approximately 2013 through 2019. The shipments contained dirt, soil and other impurities, and broker invoices called the payments reinspection fees.

The invoice made buying a pass for an impure shipment look like paying for another inspection. An employee handling clearance could recognize what that description concealed. That connection is the point we would pursue with an insider who remembers why those fees appeared.

Liberty Mutual’s Marketing Expenses

In its August 2025 letter concerning Liberty Mutual, the Justice Department described evidence of bribes paid through the company’s Indian subsidiary during approximately 2017 through 2022. The department said officials at state-owned banks directed customers to the subsidiary’s insurance products in exchange for the payments. The Justice Department said employees concealed payments through third-party intermediaries and classified them as marketing expenses.

The government described bank referrals bought with bribes and booked as marketing. Quite a sales strategy. Someone who understood the bank referrals and the intermediary’s role could connect that accounting label to the business it bought. The older marketing entry matters because of that connection.

Balt’s Consulting Fees and Hospital Purchases

The Justice Department’s March 2026 account of the criminal indictment involving Balt personnel alleged that an executive and a sales consultant paid bribes during approximately 2017 through 2023. Prosecutors alleged that the payments bought a physician’s influence over purchases of Balt medical devices by a French public hospital. Purported consulting fees and bonuses allegedly funded the payments, with sham agreements, fake invoices and personal email accounts concealing the arrangement.

For an insider, the consulting agreement, payment and hospital purchase belong in the same account of events. A sales employee may know what the consultant actually did to secure the purchase, while a finance employee knows how the payment was described. We connect those perspectives when examining older records.

Your Reporting History Has Its Own Dates

Your report inside the company and a later award claim involve dates separate from the underlying bribe. An enforcement period does not replace those program deadlines. We examine what you reported, when you reported it and what your information contributed, alongside the evidence of the payments.

Questions about employment protection and retaliation are also reasons to speak with us and the whistleblower lawyers we bring in. We address those concerns with you as part of assessing your circumstances and building your case.

Whistleblower rewards for information about Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations come through agency programs. A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. If the payment trail also points to fraud against the U.S. government, we examine that connection with you.

Your Older Records Deserve a Closer Look

If you know what an old commission, consulting invoice or coded payment really bought, speak with our whistleblower experts about the payment behind the paperwork. We connect your knowledge to the payment trail, bring in FCPA whistleblower lawyers who understand older conduct and enforcement time limits, and stay beside you as we build your strongest FCPA whistleblower case.