But the Jefferson case is just one in a fresh wave of prosecutions under the FCPA, which bars Americans from bribing foreigners. "There have been more cases in the last 4 ½ years than in the previous 26 years combined," says Bill Steinman, head of the international anticorruption practice at law firm Powell Goldstein. So far this year three individual and two companies have been indicted, sentenced, or have pleaded guilty under the law, including one case in which criminal penalties totaled $26 million.