Practice Area · Compliance
FCPA Compliance for Latin America
Compliance that travels
What is FCPA compliance for Latin American operations?
FCPA compliance for Latin American operations means ensuring a U.S. company — and the third parties acting on its behalf — never offer or pay bribes to foreign officials, and that the company keeps accurate books and adequate internal controls. Where customs, permits, and inspections create constant government touchpoints, KNR USMCA builds the policies, due diligence, and controls that keep your parent company and Board protected.
FCPA compliance is at the core of everything we do. Local business practices in Mexico and Latin America should never put your U.S. parent at risk — so we design a compliance culture that travels well across the border, applying U.S. anti-corruption standards to operations on the ground without pretending the local environment is the same as the United States.
Where exposure comes from
Six FCPA risk areas
in Latin America
Third-party intermediaries
Customs brokers, agents, and facilitators who interact with authorities on your behalf are the single most common source of FCPA exposure in Latin America.
Government touchpoints
Permits, inspections, customs clearance, and operating licenses create constant contact with officials — and constant opportunity for improper payments.
Facilitation payments
Small "grease" payments to speed routine actions are illegal under Mexican law and risky under U.S. law, even where a narrow FCPA exception might technically apply.
Gifts, travel & hospitality
Well-intentioned courtesies to officials or state-owned-enterprise staff can cross the line without clear, enforced policies.
Books & records and controls
The FCPA’s accounting provisions catch companies even without proven bribery — inaccurate records or weak internal controls are violations in themselves.
M&A successor liability
Acquire a Latin American business and you can inherit its pre-closing FCPA violations. Diligence before signing is far cheaper than remediation after.
What we build
A defensible
compliance program
A complete FCPA and anti-corruption program for your Latin American operations — assessed, designed, implemented, and monitored so it holds up to scrutiny and fits how business actually gets done in the region.
Request a compliance review- FCPA and anti-corruption risk assessment for your LatAm footprint
- Anti-bribery policies adapted to local business reality
- Third-party due diligence and ongoing monitoring
- Controls for customs, permits, and government interactions
- Employee and partner training in Spanish and English
- Internal controls aligned with the FCPA accounting provisions
- Pre- and post-acquisition FCPA due diligence
- Investigation support and reporting to your parent and Board
How we build the program
Assess. Design.
Implement. Monitor.
Assess
We map your operations, third parties, and government touchpoints to identify where corruption risk actually lives.
Design
We build anti-bribery policies, due-diligence procedures, and controls that fit local reality without lowering the U.S. standard.
Implement
We roll out training, vendor screening, and approval workflows so the program lives in day-to-day operations, not just a binder.
Monitor
We monitor third parties, refresh risk assessments, and report compliance status so your parent and Board have ongoing visibility.
Common questions
FCPA in LatAm,
answered
What U.S. compliance officers and General Counsels ask us most about anti-corruption risk in Mexico and Latin America.
The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits offering or paying anything of value to foreign government officials to obtain or retain business, and requires companies to keep accurate books and records and maintain adequate internal controls. It applies to U.S. issuers and domestic concerns and reaches their subsidiaries, employees, and agents anywhere in the world — so yes, it governs your Mexican and Latin American operations, including the actions of third parties acting on your behalf.
The highest-risk areas are third-party intermediaries — customs brokers, agents, and facilitators — and frequent government touchpoints such as permits, inspections, and customs clearance. Facilitation payments, gifts and hospitality to officials, and weak books-and-records controls round out the list. In a region where day-to-day operations require regular interaction with authorities, the exposure is structural, which is why controls and third-party diligence matter so much.
The FCPA contains a narrow exception for genuine facilitating payments for routine governmental actions, but it is easy to misapply and offers little protection in practice. Critically, such payments are illegal under Mexican law and the law of most Latin American countries. We advise companies not to rely on the exception and instead to prohibit facilitation payments outright, which is both safer and easier to enforce consistently.
Yes. A company can be held liable under the FCPA for improper payments made by agents, distributors, or other intermediaries acting on its behalf, particularly where it ignored red flags or consciously avoided knowing. This is why anti-corruption due diligence on third parties, clear contractual commitments, and ongoing monitoring are essential — not optional — parts of a defensible compliance program.
Through successor liability, an acquirer can inherit a target’s pre-closing FCPA violations. The defense is pre-acquisition FCPA due diligence — assessing the target’s third parties, government interactions, and records before you sign — followed by prompt post-closing integration of your compliance program and remediation of any issues found. Doing this early is dramatically cheaper than discovering a problem after the deal closes.
Operating across borders?
Compliance That
Travels Well
Tell us where you operate and how your teams interact with authorities. We'll assess your FCPA exposure across Mexico and LatAm in a focused review.