After the phone-hacking scandal in Britain in which The News of the World allegedly paid bribes to police and other officials for news scoops, the Obama administration could conduct an investigation under the provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that “makes it a crime for any company with U.S. ties to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business.”
It is unclear that the administration would want to use up its scarce resources bringing criminal charges, but at the very least, it could focus on whether as a publicly traded company, if bribes were paid, the News Corps made an accurate accounting report. -db
From Reuters, July 12, 2011, by Jeremy Pelofsky and Carlyn Kolker with additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa and Yinka Adegoke.