A legal alert recently issued by California’s attorney general signals that the state intends to pursue robust enforcement against foreign bribery amidst shifting federal priorities, McGuireWoods San Francisco partner Kevin Frankel and associate Kristin Lee wrote in a July 8, 2025, Daily Journal commentary.
Frankel and Lee wrote that California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s April 2 legal alert, reminding businesses that California’s Unfair Competition Law makes it illegal to pay foreign government officials to obtain business, looks like a direct response to a February executive order pausing federal enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
But California’s effort may have fatal flaws, the attorneys cautioned. The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution presents a federal preemption issue to the California attorney general’s plan, the authors explained. In addition, to bring an enforcement action the state would need to prove that payments to foreign officials negatively impacted California consumers or businesses.
The attorneys emphasized that prudent businesses should continue their anti-bribery compliance programs not only to avoid potential state litigation, but also because the FCPA has a five-year statute of limitations for criminal and civil violations and six years under accounting provisions.
“In this fast-changing regulatory climate, a five- or six-year lookback may feel like an eternity,” the authors wrote. “Especially with the hammer of possible future federal prosecution hanging in the balance.”