19 Adoption Agencies Get DOJ OK to Host Foreign Officials

The 19 agencies are not named in the memo released on October 18, 2012. See the 5-page opinion here.

“The Department of Justice blessed a plan by 19 non-profit child-adoption agencies to bring foreign officials to the U.S., saying it wouldn’t violate a U.S. foreign bribery law.

The agencies contacted the Justice Department in August to ask whether their plan to host 18 foreign government officials involved in their country’s adoption process would violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to an Oct. 18 document posted on the department’s website Friday. The FCPA prohibits giving anything of value to foreign officials in exchange for a business advantage.

The request comes under a provision of the FCPA that allows companies and non-government organizations to contact the department when they’re worried something they are planning could run afoul of the law. The Justice Department publishes the opinions after removing any identifying information. A green light creates a presumption that the conduct is legal, but doesn’t bind prosecutors from taking action if they change their minds.

The non-profits told the Justice Department the purpose of the trip was to allow the officials to learn more about the agencies’ work, which includes processing adoptions from the officials’ country, according to the document. The officials would meet with the non-profits’ staff and families who had adopted children from their country.

The agencies said they would pay for business class airfares for senior officials and coach for the other officials on the trip’s international leg, and coach airfare for all officials on domestic flights. Other costs to be incurred included two to three nights at a “business-class hotel,” meals, and local transportation. The agencies said they wouldn’t give the officials any per diems, or allow the officials to select the hotels.

On Sunday, the Justice Department said the trip wouldn’t violate the FCPA, because the trip fell under an affirmative defense covering “reasonable and bona fide expenditures.”

DOJ OKs Adoption Agencies’ Plan to Host Foreign Officials

[Wall Street Journal Blog 10/26/12 by  CM Matthews]

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