Nine British companies are being investigated by American authorities for allegedly paying bribes to win business in overseas markets, according to new research.

The study by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the UK law firm, will further stoke fears about the growing reach of international regulators.

This month, in one of the biggest corruption cases to date, BAE Systems, the defence contractor, agreed to pay £285 million in fines and to plead guilty to minor accounting violations after it was accused of paying bribes to win defence contracts. The deal brought to an end a six-year investigation led by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). BAE has always denied bribery.

Other British companies are also being pursued for allegedly bribing foreign officials.

The DOJ and other leading US regulators are investigating at least 111 companies for suspected bribery in overseas markets, Freshfields said. Of those, 33 are from outside the US, including 9 from Britain.

Multinational companies are being targeted under a US law known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which gives American regulators jurisdiction to pursue foreign companies as long as they conduct some business in the US.

The DOJ and other US regulators handed out a total of $620 million in fines for FCPA violations last year, Freshfields said. That was a seven-fold increase from 2007, when fines stood at $87 million.

via Nine British companies in US bribery inquiry – Times Online.