[viola11]

So the reason that they spy on foreign companies is that they hope they can catch bribery going on (if they had credibly evidence without the espionage they wouldn't need the espionage in the first place, thus there must happen that they spy on innocents).

Once they find evidence of corruption they confront the government that is buying, not the one that could punish the company. Clearly the crime of corruption is not of importance to the CIA (why would it, they use it to recruit, and they aren't a police anyway).

[mahyarm]

Because it effects american business success. That bribed contract that went to an 'inferior' euro corp instead of the 'superior' american corp.

So by finding evidence of corruption, they can leverage that to potentially get the contract to the american corporation, increasing US wealth.

[rjaco31]

What makes you believe US companies don't use bribe either? Or that any US corp is 'superior'?..

[palmer_eldritch]

Well, it's clearly superior to blackmail people rather than bribe them.

With bribing, the power balance is in favor of the person being bribed. With blackmail, the one in charge is the one doing the blackmail.