31 May 2010 - Paris, France

The US Attorney General Eric H. Holder gave a keynote speech on US efforts to fight international corruption, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, and the Permanent Representative of the United States to the OECD, Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, on 31 May at the OECD Conference Centre.

"For the global economy, corruption is dangerous," he said. "Bribery in international business, for example, may center on shell companies and wire transfers, but no matter where – or how – it happens, the corrosive result is the same: stymied development, lost confidence, and distorted competition.  The result is unfairness, not justice; the consequence is economic decay, not development."

See more photos from the press briefing

He also underlined US support for the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and said that "prosecuting individuals is a cornerstone of our enforcement strategy because, as long as it remains a tactic, paying large monetary penalties cannot be viewed by the business community as merely "the cost of doing business."  The risk of heading to prison for bribery is real, from the boardroom to the warehouse."

The full speech is available here. 

Further reading

• OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
   
• Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics, and Compliance (PDF)
   
• Initiative to raise global awareness of foreign bribery
   
• Hillary Clinton talks about foreign bribery on International Anti-Corruption Day