Foreign Extortion Prevention Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4140 To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a foreign official from demanding a bribe, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AUGUST 2, 2019 Ms. JACKSON LEE (for herself, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. MALINOWSKI, and Mr. HUD- SON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a foreign official from demanding a bribe, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Extortion Pre- 4 vention Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF DEMAND FOR BRIBE. 6 Section 201 of title 18, United States Code is amend- 7 ed— 8 (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 9 following: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Aug 15, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4140.IH H4140 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4140 IH ‘‘(4) The term ‘foreign official’ means any offi- 1 cer or employee— 2 ‘‘(A) of a foreign government or any de- 3 partment, agency, or instrumentality thereof; 4 ‘‘(B) of a public international organization; 5 or 6 ‘‘(C) any person acting in an official ca- 7 pacity for or on behalf of any such government 8 or department, agency, or instrumentality, or 9 for or on behalf of any such public international 10 organization. 11 ‘‘(5) The term ‘public international organiza- 12 tion’ means— 13 ‘‘(A) an organization that is designated by 14 Executive order pursuant to section 1 of the 15 International Organizations Immunities Act (22 16 U.S.C. 288); or 17 ‘‘(B) any other international organization 18 that is designated by the President by Execu- 19 tive order for the purposes of this section, effec- 20 tive as of the date of publication of such order 21 in the Federal Register’’; and 22 (2) by adding at the end the following: 23 ‘‘(f) Whoever, being a foreign official or person se- 24 lected to be a foreign official, otherwise than as provided 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Aug 15, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4140.IH H4140 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4140 IH by law for the proper discharge of official duty, directly 1 or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, 2 or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally 3 or for any other person or entity, in return for— 4 ‘‘(1) being influenced in the performance of any 5 official act; or 6 ‘‘(2) being induced to do or omit to do any act 7 in violation of the official duty of such official or 8 person, 9 shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more 10 than two years or both.’’. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Aug 15, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4140.IH H4140 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS