For those who can't get enough, some more Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guidance, courtesy of the Department of Justice.

The latest DoJ FCPA Opinion Procedure Release—the third so far this year—relates to the hiring of a consultant who's an agent of a foreign government by a U.S. limited partnership pursuing an initiative with that same foreign government.

The requestor, a "domestic concern" engaged in the development of natural resources trading and infrastructure, plans to contract with a consultant, a U.S. partnership that's a registered agent of a foreign government, and its sole owner, a U.S. citizen, to assist it in pursuing an initiative with that foreign government regarding "a novel approach to particular natural resource infrastructure development," according to Opinion Procedure Release 10-03.

The consultant holds, and has previously held, contracts to represent the foreign government and act on its behalf, including performing marketing services on behalf of the Ministry of Finance and assisting with lobbying efforts in the United States.

While the DoJ made it clear that an individual or entity that contracts to provide consulting and lobbying services to a foreign government could, in certain situations, be considered a foreign official for FCPA purposes, in this particular instance, the DoJ says it doesn't intend to take enforcement action with respect to payments made to the consultant.

Based on the facts here, the Justice Department says it's satisfied that, for purposes of the contract, the consultant and its owner aren't acting on behalf of the foreign government and therefore aren't foreign officials.

"The steps taken to wall off the employees working on the various representations from each other, the full disclosure of the relationships to the relevant parties, the permissibility of the relationships under local law, and the contractual obligations to limit further representation of the foreign government by the consultant are sufficient to ensure that the consultant will not be acting on behalf of the foreign government in performing the consulting contract with the Requestor," the opinion states.

In its analysis, the DoJ notes that the FCPA doesn't per se prohibit business relationships with, or payments to, foreign officials. "In such cases, the Department typically looks to determine whether there are any indicia of corrupt intent, whether the arrangement is transparent to the foreign government and the general public, whether the arrangement is in conformity with local law, and whether there are safeguards to prevent the foreign official from improperly using his or her position to steer business to or otherwise assist the company, for example through a policy of recusal," the release states.

As detailed in the release, the requestor put several safeguards in place to ensure no conflict of interest would arise between the consultant's representation of the company and its representation of the foreign government. Among other things, the owner won't lobby on behalf of the foreign government for the duration of the consultancy; employees working on lobbying efforts for the foreign government will be walled off from the representation of the requestor; and neither the owner nor the consultant will have any decision-making authority on behalf of the foreign government. The requestor also secured a local law opinion that it's permissible for the consultant to represent both the foreign government and the requestor at the same time, and the arrangement will be disclosed to the foreign government's Ministry of Finance.

The DoJ notes that the opinion is limited to the narrow question of whether the consultant would be a "foreign official" for purposes of the payments under the consulting contract, and doesn't opine on any other aspect of the proposed contract or any other prospective conduct involved in the request. In addition, the DoJ warns that the proposed relationship "increases the risk of potential FCPA violations" and notes that the opinion doesn't preclude it from taking enforcement action if an FCPA violation occurs during execution of the consultancy.

The release also points to other FCPA opinion procedure releases in which the DoJ okayed business arrangements with foreign officials: 80-02; 82-02 86-01; and 94-01.