New Book Bribery Beyond Borders Debuts at ACI's 42nd FCPA Conference, Reframing the Statute for a New Era

Severin Wirz's decade-long investigation uncovers the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's forgotten origin story—and why it matters now

FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CCI Press today announced the launch of Bribery Beyond Borders: The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a gripping narrative history of the landmark anti-corruption statute. The book will debut at the 42nd International Conference on the FCPA, hosted by the American Conference Institute (ACI), December 2–4 in Washington, D.C.—the premier forum for the global compliance and anti-corruption community.

Written by legal historian Severin Wirz, Bribery Beyond Borders arrives at a moment of reckoning for the FCPA, when its purpose is being questioned, its narrative has fractured, and its future depends on how reformers frame corruption as a strategic threat.

Wirz, a practicing attorney with more than 15 years of experience helping multinational companies comply with the FCPA and other cross-border anti-corruption laws, spent over a decade investigating the statute's Cold War origins and its evolving role in global business, democracy, and national security. His research involved tracking down key witnesses, gathering archival records, and reconstructing the political and corporate forces that shaped the law.

"Much of this history has been ignored, and what's out there is often wrong," Wirz said. "That's what drove me to visit the archives and speak with journalists, staffers, SEC commissioners, and enforcement officials—all of whom helped to paint for me a fuller picture of what really happened."

As the FCPA approaches its 50th anniversary and a new set of challenges, Wirz takes readers back to the 1970s and into the hallways of Congress and behind the closed-door dealings of corporate boardrooms. There, he uncovers the statute's largely forgotten origins with striking detail.

"Today, the statute is in crisis—caught between competing narratives, weaponized rhetoric, and a lack of clear reform direction — but that's not the only reason CCI Press snapped up this manuscript," said CCI Press publisher Sarah Hadden: "It's honestly a page-turner. Wirz is an FCPA expert, but he's also a storyteller at heart, and the reader is pulled in from the very first page."

Set against the backdrop of Cold War geopolitics, the narrative reveals how corruption was once viewed as a national security threat, and how that framing may be due for a revival.

"We're living through a moment where corruption is once again threatening democracy—both at home and abroad," Wirz said. "Ultimately, I want readers to understand why the history behind the statute still matters today."

Bribery Beyond Borders is available at Amazon and select bookstores.

About CCI Press
CCI Press is the publishing imprint of CCI Media Group LLC, parent company of Corporate Compliance Insights (CCI). CCI is the web's premier independent global source of news and opinion for compliance, ethics, and risk founded in 2010.

Media contact: 
Jacqueline Fleming
(203) 548-7006
[email protected]

SOURCE CCI Press