Month in a Minute: February 2025

Hughes Hubbard’s anti-corruption “Month in a Minute” offers a summary of the biggest foreign corruption-related developments from the prior month. Month in a Minute is intended to provide a quick snapshot of the latest news and developments. We hope you find it a useful and perhaps even enjoyable resource.

Highlights from February 2025 include an executive order pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice and a related delay in the trial of two former Cognizant executives.

New Executive Order Pauses DOJ FCPA Enforcement

On Feb. 10, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (the Order) that directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to “cease initiation” of any new FCPA enforcement actions or investigations for at least 180 days.

Specifically, the Order directed the attorney general to: (1) not initiate any new FCPA enforcement actions or investigations for the next 180 days, unless the attorney general determines an exception is appropriate, (2) review all existing FCPA enforcement actions or investigations, and (3) review and issue updated FCPA guidelines or policies that prioritize American companies’ economic competitiveness abroad. The attorney general has the option to extend the pause period for an additional 180 days if she deems it appropriate, and once new guidelines go into effect the Attorney General must personally approve all new FCPA enforcement actions and investigations by the DOJ.

In a fact sheet that accompanied the Order, the White House stated that FCPA enforcement has been “excessive” and “unpredictable” and has made American companies less competitive by prohibiting them from engaging in “practices common among international competitors.”

For more analysis on what this pause means for the FCPA, check out Hughes Hubbard’s client advisory on Navigating the Pause: FCPA Compliance Under Trump’s New Order or discussion in Hughes Hubbard’s award-winning All Things Investigations podcast.

Cognizant Executives’ Trial Adjourned Following Executive Order on FCPA

On Feb. 11, 2025, Judge Michael Farbiarz of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey ordered government attorneys to state their position regarding the upcoming trial of two former Cognizant executives, Gordon Coburn and Steven Schwartz Judge Farbiarz’s order came in direct response to President Trump’s executive order directing the US attorney general to cease initiation of any new FCPA enforcement actions or investigations and to review all existing enforcement actions.

In 2019, Coburn, Cognizant’s ex-president, and Schwartz, Cognizant’s former chief legal officer, were charged with conspiracy and multiple counts of substantive FCPA violations for allegedly paying bribes to an Indian government official. According to the indictment, in 2014, Cognizant engaged a construction company to build its campus in Chennai, India. In order to obtain a planning permit for the construction of its campus, Coburn and Schwartz allegedly authorized the construction company to pay a $2 million bribe to a senior Indian government official. They later allegedly authorized two additional bribe payments to the official which totaled more than $16 million.

In 2019, Cognizant itself received a declination from the DOJ due to its voluntary disclosure under which it agreed to pay $3 million in disgorgement. Cognizant also reached a parallel resolution with the SEC under which it agreed to pay $164 million in disgorgement, $2.7 million in prejudgment interest and a $6 million civil monetary penalty.

Following the court’s Feb. 11, 2025 order, prosecutors informed the court that they intended to proceed to trial on March 3, 2025. However, on March 4, 2025, the new U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey requested that Judge Farbiarz adjourn the trial so that the government might consider its compliance with the Feb. 10, 2025 executive order. Judge Farbiarz has now adjourned the trial until March 17, 2025, due to an unrelated medical issue.

Fact of the Month

This one is for the logophiles out there On Feb. 1, 1884, the first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was published. This first 352-page volume only covered “a” through “ant” and sold just 4,000 copies. Since this initial publication, the OED has become one of the most comprehensive dictionaries in the world and has documented the development of the English language. The last printed edition of the OED (it has since moved online) was published in 1989 and contained 20 volumes.