Trump froze the bribery law that hit Tesla’s suppliers

The anti -library law whose application president Donald Trump has suspended was previously used by the Department of Justice and financial regulators to win agreements for a total of more than $ 1.5 billion companies that are the main suppliers of TeslaThe giant of the electric vehicle led by Trump Elon Musk’s ally.

And Trump in his executive order On Monday, pause of the law, which prohibits the bribe of deep water or other key or active infrastructure “

Tesla and other electric vehicle companies trust critical minerals, mostly of origin abroad, to make batteries.

Critical minerals and deep water ports were the only two specific advantages mentioned by name in order, entitled “Pause Foreign Corrupt Practices Law Application to promote American economic and national security. “

CNBC has asked the White House, Tesla and Musk if the technological billionaire played some role in pressing for the order or inclusion of language on critical minerals in the directive. The White House declined to comment. Tesla and Musk did not respond.

In his first month in office, Trump has also signed executive orders and policy changes that could negatively affect Tesla by drastically slowing down the adoption of EV in the United States, according to the Research firm Wood Mackenzie.

In a profit call in January, the CFO of Tesla Vaibhav Taneja warned the shareholders that Trump’s tariffs could damage the company’s profitability.

However, Musk’s power and influence within Trump’s White House is not preceded in modern politics.

Musk, the richest person in the world, spent almost $ 300 million to help Trump win the 2024 presidential elections.

It was relatively little given the estimated net worth of Musk of around $ 400 billion. But it was enough to consolidate his place as Trump’s most prominent defender and advisor.

Now Musk works in the White House, where he supervises a broad and controversial effort known as the Government’s efficiency department, called Doge, to reduce federal government expenditure, the head of employees, regulations and agencies.

In addition to being CEO of Tesla and Doge Leader, Musk controls several other companies, including the SpaceX defense contractor, the Social Network Platform X, the Chatbot and the generative developer of the XAI, the tunnel company of the boring company and The Startup Neuralink.

He Foreign Corrupt Practices Law 1977 makes it a crime for companies and people operating in the United States to bribe foreign government officials to obtain or retain commercial advantages.

The FCPA has long been considered a gold standard for anti -corruption statutes, and IT versions have been adopted by countries around the world.

But on Monday, Trump said the FCPA “had been systematically … extended beyond the appropriate limits and abused in a way that damages the interest of the United States.”

Trump ordered the attorney general Pam Bondi to cease, for 180 days, the beginning of any new investigation of the FCPA or compliance actions unless determined that an exception must be made.

He also ordered Bondi to review “all existing FCPA investigations or compliance actions and take the appropriate measures … to restore the appropriate limits in the application of the FCPA.”

Then, in a highly unusual movement, the order orders Bondi to review previous cases under previous administrations, to determine if any FCPA application action was “inappropriate.”

If Bondi finds that they were, the order says, the “corrective measures” must be taken to compensate for the accused parties of the violations.

Among these previous actions of application of the law that Bondi will review, there are at least four cases that involve Tesla suppliers or their subsidiaries.

None of these cases mentions behavior directly related to Tesla.

But together, they reveal the important role played by FCPA in the regulation of commercial practices in the critical mineral mining sector.

In May 2022, two divisions of the multinational firm of commerce and mining of basic products Glencore He declared guilty and agreed to pay more than $ 1.1 billion to resolve the investigations of the Department of Justice and the Basic Product Future Trade Commission of his rapes of the FCPA.

The FCPA charges are related to a Decadienda de Glencore and subsidiary “scheme to make and hide corrupt payments and bribes through intermediaries for the benefit of foreign officials in several countries,” said the Department of Justice at that time.

Glencore is an important cobalt provider, a metal used to make lithium -ion batteries.

Tesla has obtained cobalt for its Glencore EV batteries. And in 2021, Tesla discussed buying a participation in Glencore, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As part of his guilty statement of May 2022, Glencore “agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years,” said the Department of Justice at that time.

In March 2023, the Global Mining Giant Rio Tinto paid a relatively small fine, $ 15 million, to Establish positions related to FCPA by him Bag and Securities Commission derived from payments made to a consultant in Guinea.

Tesla has He agreed to buy 75,000 nickel metric tons From an adventure of articular mining of Río Tinto in the upper west.

Six months after the Río Tinto settlement, manufacturer of specialized chemicals from North Carolina Albemar – The largest lithium producer in the world – agreed to pay more than $ 218 million to resolve the investigations of the Department of Justice and the SECOND.

In this case, the FCPA violations They were related to the participation of Albembar in the schemes to pay bribes to government officials in multiple foreign countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

A three -year non -prosecution agreement related to that agreement with the Department of Justice is still valid for Albermle, which provides Lithium to Tesla.

In 2018, Panasonic Avionics Corp., A Division of Panasonic Corp. with headquarters in the USA., Agreed to pay a criminal penalty of more than $ 137 million to resolve the charges of violating the accounting provisions of FCPA.

In a related procedure, Panasonic agreed to pay around $ 143 million in disgust to the SEC after the agency presented a cessation and withdrawal order.

The SEC said that Panasonic Avionics had “offered a lucrative consulting position to a government official at a state airline to induce the official to help PAC obtain and retain business from the airline.”

“At that time he orchestrated the bribery scheme, PAC was negotiating two agreements with the airline valued at more than $ 700 million,” said the SEC.

Panasonic Corp. Factory batteries for Tesla, and the two companies share a factory in Nevada.