The United States Congress is currently considering the passing of the "Countering Russian and Overseas Kleptocracy ACT ("CROOK Act). The Act "seeks to authorize the Secretary of State to establish a fund to be known as the “Anti-Corruption Action Fund” to aid foreign states to prevent and fight public corruption and develop rule of law based governance structures, including accountable investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial bodies, and supplement existing foreign assistance and diplomacy with respect to such efforts.
The United States House and Senate have two versions of this proposed legislation with the House planning to tax all civil and criminal fines related to FCPA enforcement while the Senate proposes to tax only FCPA fines above USD 50 million, with such funds being deposited with the United States Treasury "Anti-Corruption Action Fund".
Recently, the Americas Quarterly provided an interesting perspective on the above specifically in relation to anti-corruption cooperation efforts in Latin America (see below link and quote).
It is a good read for those interested in ongoing prospects for cross border cooperation in the Latin America Region (and globally) to combat corruption throughout the Hemisphere and to get a better understanding of the issues at hand.
"The bill has bipartisan support and 17 cosponsors, but some of its details have yet to be determined. One proposal is that companies fined $50 million or more under FCPA would have to contribute an additional $5 million to the new fund. Abigail Bellows, a former State Department official who has been advising Congress and helping draft the bill, calculates that this formula would initially secure $15 million annually for the “Anti-Corruption Action Fund.” In the universe of U.S. foreign aid, it is not a large amount: the U.S. currently spends around $115 million annually on rule of law aid overseas. However, the existing resources are rigidly earmarked and spread across different agencies and areas of the world. Bellows argues that the CROOK Act would provide a vital source of discretionary and “flexible money,” deployed to help “reformers when political transitions create a window of opportunity to improve the rule of law.” Moreover, with more money from FCPA cases and other sources, the fund could expand. But what would that mean in practice for Latin America?"
https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/what-washingtons-crook-act-means-for-latin-america/.
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