Research Paper on:
FCPA and U.S. Firms

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
example is illegal as is government bribery. Yet, when competing in a global environment, the inability to bribe has put some companies at a decided disadvantage. U.S. companies complain that  they are constrained by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977, a law that prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials to obtain business abroad (Lozada, 2002). American firms  have argued that U.S. firms are at a significant disadvantage in contrast to their bribe-happy counterparts (2002). Other countries actually are given tax deductions to firms for  their bribes (2002). There are many examples of how such bribes are effected. For instance, when deciding to modernize the nations banking system, the government of Argentina  decided to bid in late 1993 for a major information-technology services contract (2002). IBMs local subsidiary planned a proposal and despite the magnitude of the undertaking, IBM headquarters dispatched a  systems manager to oversee the final stages of the proposal (2002). In February of 1994, IBM-Argentina won a $250 million contract but soon, Argentine tax authorities visited the offices  of an IBM-Argentina subcontractor (2002). There, it was discovered that $10.6 million was paid to the IBM subsidiary for services provided in the Banco Naci?n project (2002). Investigators  soon found that CCRs main service had really been to funnel some $4.4 million in "gifts" to two Banco Naci?n and the matter made national headlines and quickly erupted  into a political scandal (2002). Although it is true that firms in foreign nations can get away with much in terms of bribes, it is not always the case. Still,  things are much harder for a U.S. company no matter where it is based because it has to abide by the rules. First, what is FCPA exactly? FCPA is