By Chris Prentice and Dawn Kopecki
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top two leaders of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s foreign corrupt practices unit are leaving the agency, according to two people familiar with the matter, at a time when the Trump administration has been hitting the brakes on anti-corruption enforcement.
Charles Cain, the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act chief since 2017, and Tracy Price, deputy chief of the unit since 2018, are among hundreds of SEC officials leaving the agency, according to the two people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the moves have not been made public outside the agency. A third source familiar with the matter confirmed Price was departing.
President Donald Trump’s administration, with billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser, is seeking to overhaul the federal workforce through mass layoffs and reorganization.
Neither Cain nor Price could be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration in February ordered a pause in enforcement of the FCPA, a U.S. law that bars U.S. companies from paying bribes to build business overseas. As part of an executive order, Trump called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the law’s enforcement and pending cases over the next 180 days.
Trump’s order did not name the SEC, but Antonia Apps, the regulator’s acting deputy enforcement director, told lawyers at an American Bar Association conference that the agency would follow the Justice Department’s lead.
Trump has said that the anti-corruption law puts U.S. companies at a disadvantage, facing punishment over what he has called “routine business practices in other nations.” It’s one of a series of moves by the Trump administration to move away from efforts to combat corruption.
But advocates point out the FCPA is a law that is regularly used to bring large levies against foreign companies with ties to the U.S.
One of the sources said the FCPA team has been ordered to stop work on FCPA cases.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Paul Simao)
