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Sun Microsystems May Have Violated Bribery Law
Afforess writes "In a new file submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sun Microsystems admitted that 'we have identified potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the resolution of which could possibly have a material effect on our business.' The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it 'unlawful to make a payment to a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.' Yet, Sun would not release further details, only that it 'took remedial action.' Oracle, the new owner of Sun Microsystems, also said that they had prior knowledge of the infraction, yet also refused to release any details."
For those of you that won't RTFA, this may not be a big deal and is fairly common.
For example, in 2007, networking provider Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle charges that Lucent Technologies, before it was bought by Alcatel SA in 2006, illegally paid for hundreds of trips for Chinese officials to win contracts. In a separate case, IBM Corp. agreed in 2000 to pay $300,000 to settle allegations that its Argentina subsidiary was involved in bribing officials of a government-owned bank to win a contract to upgrade the bank's computer systems.
Dual Opteron < $600
And it's naive to think otherwise. You want to do serious governmental business in Saudi Arabia/Egypt/Jordan? Some shiek/prince/royal family member is going to get some quid pro quo. And quite frankly it's more or less true in America as well. You think those Congressional reelection campaign coffers are going to fill themselves?
Jealously hoarding mod points since 2007.
There are quite a few countries who's culture is substantially different from the United States in which bribery is considered standard business practice. If you dont bribe an official in one of those countries, you dont get anything done.
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Squirrel
It's a law that is almost never followed by companies that do business overseas. And the reason they cite for doing it? Other companies are not bound by such laws and are free to engage in such practices which gives the other companies a "competitive advantage." It is practically chinese national culture that bribery occurs and is quite expected.
But the other reason I love this law is that charges associated with it often disappear with "healthy contributions" to party and individual campaign funds.
In my home state there are laws against bribery and corruption of course. One of them pertains to gifts. Included in the banned gifts are food. The rule is that you cannot accept food (usually cookies) from anyone unless you eat it in front of them.
Now that last bit sounds odd, doesn't it. Obviously, the rules do allow you to accept a gift of food if you eat in front of them. So, in practice, this means that if you accept cookies for going the extra mile for somebody, you are CORRUPT and UNETHICAL!!! If, on the other hand, you are a politician and getting bought dinner by a lobbyist, you are a force for righteousness.
Apparently.
For those of you who are interested and have not already seen it, the Foreign Corrupt Practices act and international bribery by large corporations and wealthy individuals was covered in the "Black Money" episode on Frontline. Obviously the Sun case, coming to light more recently and being much smaller than the frauds discussed in the documentary, is not mentioned, but the Sun case is just another smaller instance of a much larger problem.
Transparency International: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_International and http://www.transparency.org/
It's a tough road to take, but if everybody tolerates corruption, it ain't gonna go away, and it certainly hurts more than it helps.
Bribery stories are my favorite from folks doing business overseas. In order to avoid direct bribery, some companies hire local "consultants," who get paid an obscene fee to help land the contract. What they do with their money doesn't concern the company paying the fee; the bribe is indirect.
My all time favorite was from a government auditor who visited Korea to check up on three local suppliers to the US military. The suppliers made dinner arrangements, and told the auditor where to meet them. When he arrived at the restaurant, there were the three suppliers, with four prostitutes seated at the table, with one empty seat.
What's so funny? The auditor had brought his wife along to see Korea, and came with him to the restaurant. One prostitute got her pay early, and the mood at the table afterwards was uncomfortable.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
This is not an instance of "cultural arrogance." It has absolutely nothing to do with the modern exportation of democracy. Instead, it is the exportation of the Rule of Law (at least, in instances where it is in our best economic and political interests.)
Corruption by government officials has been a problem as long as there has been government. There are certainly many countries in which bribery of the bureaucracy is endemic and pragmatically accepted as a fact of life, but I know of none where it is considered harmless. I know of no government, period, that does not have a law against domestic bribery of the bureaucracy.
Unstable and corruption-ridden foreign government makes international trade very difficult and expensive for both parties.