As the Justice Department has stepped up its enforcement of an anti-foreign bribery law, it has faced the expected stiff resistance from the business community.
Now it faces the unexpected as courts are pushing back, too.
In an unusual verbal order issued earlier this week, a federal judge in Houston dismissed without sending to the jury a case against a Texas man accused of authorizing bribes to government officials in Mexico, on behalf of his former employer, a unit of ABB Group (ABBN.VX).
The government’s principal witness “knows almost nothing”, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes said in announcing his decision to acquit the defendant, John O’Shea, according to a transcript.
Prosecutors also did not produce evidence to “conclude beyond a reasonable doubt” that a middleman did nothing for Swiss power products company ABB beyond pay the bribes, he said.
The decision is the latest in a string of setbacks for the Justice Department unit that prosecutes violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1970s law that bars U.S.-linked companies and individuals from paying bribes to officials of foreign governments in exchange for business.
