When the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026 and then Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assumed the role of Acting President, Transparency International called for “restoring democracy… protect[ing] the rights of Venezuelans and address[ing] the country’s entrenched corruption crisis.”

Annual compliance training used to be conducted by sitting down at a desktop with a series of hour-long courses that you had to complete all in one sitting. But through studies and research, we have found that this is actually an inefficient way to truly learn much of anything. So, what is the solution? Making training like a classroom.

The TRACE team hosts webinars for our membership community throughout the year, and this time of year is always a favorite of mine. During the first months of the year, the team works with experts in the field of compliance throughout the world to reflect on the past year's anti-corruption enforcement actions, while predicting what could happen in the year ahead. Each region brings different areas of focus and different expectations of individuals working for an organ

In January 2026, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter joined growing calls for fans to boycott matches held in the United States during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. His support reflected broader concerns over U.S. political conduct, immigration policies, and the treatment of migrants and protesters, with critics questioning whether the United States was an appropriate host for a global event intended to unify nations.

In a previous piece in conversation with Severin Wirz, ethics and compliance attorney (and former TRACE staffer) about his book Bribery Beyond Borders: The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, I covered his telling of the pre-history of the FCPA. In this second of a two-part series, I explore how Wirz thinks the anti-corruption movement should now move forward, particularly following first the FCPA pause, and now the changes in FCPA enforcement.

When enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was paused in February 2025, ethics and compliance attorney Severin Wirz, previously with TRACE and now at Applied Materials, was finalizing a 10-year project on the law’s history. His resulting November 2025 book, Bribery Beyond Borders: The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, truly meets this current moment. In this first of a two-part series from our recent conversation, I examine Wirz’s recounting of the