22 USC 2779a – Prohibition on incentive payments
(a) In general
No United States supplier of defense articles or services sold or licensed under this chapter or exported pursuant to a treaty referred to in section 2778(j)(1)(C)(i) of this title, nor any employee, agent, or subcontractor thereof, shall, with respect to the sale or export of any such defense article or defense service to a foreign country, make any incentive payments for the purpose of satisfying, in whole or in part, any offset agreement with that country.
(b) Civil penalties
Terms Used In 22 USC 2779a
- association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to the imposition of civil penalties as provided for in this section.
(c) Presidential authority
In the enforcement of this section, the President is authorized to exercise the same powers concerning violations and enforcement and imposition of civil penalties which are conferred upon departments, agencies and officials by subsections (c), (d), (e), and (f) of section 11 1 of the Export Administration Act of 1979, and section 12(a) 1 of such Act, subject to the same terms and conditions as are applicable to such powers under that Act, except that section 11(c)(2)(B) of such Act shall not apply, and instead, as prescribed in regulations issued under this section, the Secretary of State may assess civil penalties for violations of this chapter and regulations prescribed thereunder and further may commence a civil action to recover such civil penalties, and except further that notwithstanding section 11(c) of that Act, the civil penalty for each violation of this section may not exceed $500,000 or five times the amount of the prohibited incentive payment, whichever is greater.
(d) Definitions
For purposes of this section—
(1) the term “offset agreement” means an agreement, arrangement, or understanding between a United States supplier of defense articles or defense services and a foreign country under which the supplier agrees to purchase or acquire, or to promote the purchase or acquisition by other United States persons of, goods or services produced, manufactured, grown, or extracted, in whole or in part, in that foreign country in consideration for the purchase by the foreign country of defense articles or defense services from the supplier;
(2) the term “incentive payments” means direct monetary compensation made by a United States supplier of defense articles or defense services or by any employee, agent or subcontractor thereof to any other United States person to induce or persuade that United States person to purchase or acquire goods or services produced, manufactured, grown, or extracted, in whole or in part, in the foreign country which is purchasing those defense articles or services from the United States supplier; and
(3) the term “United States person” means—
(A) an individual who is a national or permanent resident alien of the United States; and
(B) any corporation, business association, partnership, trust, or other juridical entity—
(i) organized under the laws of the United States or any State, the District of Columbia, or any territory or possession of the United States; or
(ii) owned or controlled in fact by individuals described in subparagraph (A) or by an entity described in clause (i).