How to Report FCPA Violations: The Transaction You Know Can Tell the Story

To decide how to report FCPA violations, start with our whistleblower experts and the transaction you know. A reseller discount, hiring approval or invoice may connect a government decision to a benefit somebody tried to disguise. We assess that connection with you, identify the reporting and reward programs that fit, and bring in FCPA whistleblower counsel who understand the business behind the payment.

What Does an FCPA Report Need to Show?

An FCPA report connects the company, the official decision, the benefit and the people who arranged it. The strongest whistleblower evidence also explains how the transaction appeared in the books and what happened when somebody questioned it. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s description of useful information emphasizes specific transactions, people involved and nonpublic materials that show the conduct.

Those facts can sit at different desks. Sales may know why a distributor needed an extra discount, finance may know which account received the payment, and compliance may have the warning that reached management. A local subsidiary may approve the expense while the parent consolidates its accounts. Your knowledge of those connections gives an invoice or spreadsheet meaning that its label alone cannot supply.

We work through the chronology with you: the pending contract, inspection or license, the proposed benefit, the approval, the payment and any later explanation. Dates, witnesses and record locations help connect each event to the people who knew about it. An account of what you personally saw, what someone told you and what the documents show gives us a clearer starting point than a general suspicion about the company. You can talk with us about that account before you have every part of the transaction in hand.

For an intermediary payment, we also want to understand what the intermediary actually did. A signed contract describes the promised service. An invoice and bank transfer show the billing and payment. The work itself may appear in a report, a delivered product or a communication with the customer. Comparing those records can reveal whether the payment followed the stated agreement or served another purpose. We connect those records to the official decision the payment was meant to influence.

What Conduct Can Violate the FCPA?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act addresses corrupt offers, promises, authorizations and payments of value to foreign officials to obtain or retain business. Its accounting provisions separately address accurate company records and internal accounting controls. A report may therefore concern both the benefit provided and the false record used to conceal it.

The official may work inside the customer: a public hospital, state-controlled enterprise or government purchasing body. The business decision may concern an inspection, permit or financing arrangement as well as a contract award. A consultant’s invoice, a relative’s job or a customer’s trip can explain what the company offered in exchange for that decision. These are business relationships an insider can describe in concrete terms.

Inspection Fees That Bought Clearance

In its July 2026 criminal deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, Scoular admitted bribery through customs brokers to pass Mexican inspections despite dirt, soil and other impurities in agricultural shipments. The brokers’ invoices described the payments as reinspection fees. The Justice Department’s account put the bribes at more than $400,000 and the avoided fees and costs at more than $6.5 million.

We see the incentive: the costs avoided dwarfed the bribes. The invoice made buying clearance look like another clearance expense. Someone who handled the broker invoices, employee messages or affected shipments could connect the charge to the condition of the goods and the decision to release them.

The Discount the Customer Never Received

Under its 2019 criminal non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, Microsoft Hungary admitted that employees justified discounts as necessary for government sales while resellers retained money for improper payments instead of passing the discounts to customers. The agreement’s account connects the supplier’s price, the discount approval and the final government sale. The useful question for a person inside that sales chain is where the discount went.

A distributor buys and resells the product, so its purchase price and the customer’s price describe different transactions. An employee who knows both can explain the margin and the reason given for enlarging it. We examine that commercial explanation alongside the approval and payment records. Screening the reseller’s name tells us far less about this particular transaction than knowing what the customer actually paid.

A Job or a Trip Can Be the Benefit

The SEC’s 2016 settled order concerning JPMorgan alleged that bankers and support staff edited hiring questionnaires to conceal expected business benefits. It also described spreadsheets tracking revenue from clients whose referrals the bank had hired. As the agency described them, the hiring paperwork and the revenue tracking told different stories about the same decision. Someone who saw the earlier questionnaire or the business discussions could explain that difference.

The records can contradict each other just as plainly on a travel expense. In the SEC’s 2024 settled accounting case against Deere & Company, the agency alleged that Wirtgen Thailand provided improper benefits to government officials and disguised entertainment expenses. Its order described a trip this way:

We would want to understand the invoice and itinerary together, along with the recipients, approvals and pending business. A factory visit with no factory visit is a remarkably convenient expense description. The person who arranged the trip may know exactly how that description got approved.

Training Invoices That Generated Bribe Money

In its 2024 settled order against SAP, the SEC alleged that SAP Indonesia and an intermediary used fake training invoices to create funds for bribes. According to the order, intermediary employees created shell companies whose invoices funded employee kickbacks, customer excursions and cash payments to officials at state-owned entities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also described messages between SAP account executives and intermediary employees using baggage and envelopes as codes for bribes. That puts the invoice beside the conversation about what the money was for. An insider may recognize the supposed training, the vendor that billed for it or the message that explained the real purpose.

What Happened After Someone Raised the Concern?

An internal report adds another part of the transaction’s history: what management learned and how it responded. We examine the concern, its recipients, the records supplied and the response alongside the payments themselves. An audit’s existence tells less than its scope, findings and follow-through.

The SEC’s 2016 settled order against Anheuser-Busch InBev alleged that an internal complaint raised potential improper payments involving a promoter. According to the order, the company accelerated a planned audit that did not scrutinize the promoter’s activities or expenses.

Under its 2018 criminal deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, Panasonic Avionics admitted that a version of an audit report omitted its concluding Foreign Corrupt Practices Act recommendation and other recommendations. It also admitted failing to conduct significant follow-up on the issues despite repeated distribution of the reports. We see an audit losing its own warning. The different versions and their recipients belong in the same account as the questioned payments.

In its 2019 settled order concerning Walmart, the SEC alleged that an anonymous email described improper payments for Indian store permits and licenses. According to the order, an executive requested that investigators examine the allegations, but Walmart did not conduct an inquiry at that time.

The Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting‘s 2022 case study of Fresenius Medical Care examined how payment schemes continued despite internal warnings. Its conclusion makes the point about what a reporting system accomplished in practice:

We read these examples as a reason to examine what followed the warning. A policy, an audit and a referral to investigators can all exist while the underlying payment questions remain unanswered. Your knowledge of which transactions continued, which concerns disappeared from a report and who made those decisions can supply that missing part of the story.

Can an FCPA Whistleblower Report to Two Agencies?

An FCPA whistleblower report can involve two agencies, the SEC and the Justice Department. Their whistleblower programs have separate requirements, and we assess them together with the facts of your transaction. Whether the company has securities registered in the United States or must file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission is part of that assessment, including for foreign companies. The payment route and your information matter too.

How Do I Report Bribery to the SEC?

Start with our whistleblower experts so we can assess the company’s reporting obligations and your information with FCPA whistleblower counsel. The SEC whistleblower program receives bribery information through its Tips, Complaints and Referrals process. The agency’s submission guidance distinguishes an SEC submission from information provided to another agency.

If you have already reported the conduct or know of an existing investigation, we assess what you can add about particular transactions, witnesses or records. That history helps us understand your contribution as well as the underlying scheme.

The Justice Department Has a Separate Awards Pilot

The Justice Department’s corporate whistleblower awards pilot covers specified corporate misconduct, including foreign bribery. We assess its July 30, 2026 revised terms alongside the SEC program and the reports already made, with the aim of pursuing your strongest supported whistleblower claim.

Does a Tip Also Apply for an Award?

No, a tip and an award claim are separate submissions. We work with you and your whistleblower counsel from the first report through the award claim.

Under the Securities and Exchange Commission program, eligible whistleblowers can receive 10% to 30% of qualifying monetary sanctions collected, with a successful SEC action ordering more than $1 million in sanctions. The Justice Department decides whether to award a share of qualifying money forfeited to the government. The money that counts toward an award therefore depends on the program and the government’s actual recovery.

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act itself provides no private qui tam case, so we assess foreign-bribery reports under the separate agency programs.

Can I Report If I Am Outside the United States?

Yes, people outside the United States can provide information to the SEC. A person working for a local subsidiary, distributor or consultant may know the payment and the official relationship firsthand. The SEC also accepts information from people who are not employees of the company they report.

We discuss where the records are held, how you came to know their contents and which parts of the transaction you handled. If your concerns involve anonymous reporting, employment protection, privileged material or access to overseas records, we work through those questions with you and FCPA whistleblower counsel. If you approved or participated in a payment, that is also a reason to speak with us about your particular circumstances. You do not have to resolve those questions before contacting our team.

The Payment You Can Explain

If you know why a discount disappeared, a hiring questionnaire changed or an invoice described work that never happened, speak with our whistleblower experts about your FCPA report. We connect your knowledge to the business decisions and payment records, build your strongest supported foreign-bribery whistleblower case and bring in FCPA whistleblower lawyers suited to the scheme. We stay with you through the reporting and award process.