This paper examines the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in processes of democratic reversal, understood as the replacement of a system of democratic governance with one of autocratic governance. Drawing on historical studies that employed archival research, we identify two timeframes of MNE involvement: ex-ante strategies, deployed to influence home- and host-country stakeholders to promote regime change, and ex-post strategies, used to legitimize new authoritarian regimes in both the home and host countries (and beyond). We conceptualize these strategies as part of the “dark side” of nonmarket strategy, extending the literature beyond adaptive or transformative approaches to include covert and proactive political interventions. Our analysis highlights how MNEs leverage political resources and corporate diplomacy to influence institutional environments, challenging the assumption that firms prefer liberal democracies. By integrating insights from political science and business history, we develop a framework for understanding MNE diplomatic wrongdoing and its implications for international business theory and practice.