NEW YORK: News Corporation faces the increased prospect of a full-blown inquiry by US authorities as part of the continuing investigation into alleged bribery of public officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in the wake of the latest round of arrests of journalists at Britain's The Sun newspaper over the weekend.

Rupert Murdoch flies into London this week at a time of turmoil for Britain's best-selling newspaper, with journalists on the title angry at News Corp's management and standards committee, whose reconstruction of the company's email archive produced evidence that led to the arrests.

Rupert Murdoch … off to London. Credit:Justin Sullivan

The threat of prosecution under the US act - which criminalises bribes to public officials overseas - exposes News Corp to tens of millions of dollars in fines and the risk of imprisonment of its executive officers.

Mike Koehler, an expert in foreign corrupt practices law at Butler University, said Saturday's arrests marked an escalation in the risk of a prosecution for the New York-based News Corp. ''This spreads the alleged bribery to a completely different newspaper, to a different segment of the company and to other public officials,'' he said.