With Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. on its heels from the British phone-hacking scandal, a liberal group in the U.S. has accused the media mogul of financing a million-dollar lobbying effort in Washington to weaken an anti-bribery law that it may have violated.

 

The Center for American Progress called attention to a $1 million donation last summer from News Corp. to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which almost immediately began work to amend the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Lobbyists say the law is hurting American business competitiveness and needs to be changed.

 

FCPA bars companies with U.S. ties from bribing foreign officials to get or retain business. News Corp., which faces allegations of having bribed British police, was originally incorporated in South Australia, but re-incorporated in Delaware in 2004.  

 

The center also began circulating a petition demanding that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate Murdoch’s company to determine if officials violated the FCPA. Three Democratic U.S. senators echoed the center’s call by requesting that Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. conduct a probe of News Corp.

 

The legal website Main Justice questioned the Center for American Progress’ effort to link News Corp. and the chamber’s anti-FCPA lobbying campaign. It noted that media companies are rarely prosecuted for violating the anti-bribery law and the Chamber has a lot of other members who have been, like energy and defense companies. 

 

“To date, there is no evidence of any connection between News Corp. and the Chamber’s push to change the FCPA,” wrote Main Justice. It added that the money News Corp. gave to the chamber “was not earmarked for FCPA lobbying,” but rather was given to support the Republican Party’s push to retake Congress in the 2010 election.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

The Chamber of Commerce, the FCPA and Rupert Murdoch (by Christopher Matthews, Main Justice)

News Corp-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Leading Campaign to Weaken Key Anti-Bribery Law (by Josh Dorner,  Think Progress)

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: the Chamber of Commerce's Campaign to Weaken the Act and a Potential Investigation into News Corp. (by Bryan Rahija, Project on Government Oversight)

US Congress: Investigate News Corp. Scandal (MediaMatters)

News Corporation (Wikipedia)