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HP's Moscow Offices Raided In Bribery Probe

Posted by Soulskill on from the hey-those-printer-cartridges-are-expensive dept.

FrankPoole writes "Hewlett-Packard's Moscow offices were raided Wednesday as part of a bribery investigation by Russian and German authorities. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal [currently paywalled; Reuters also covered it], which wrote that HP is suspected of allegedly paying out nearly $11 million in bribes to secure a major Russian government contract several years ago via a German subsidiary. Ironically, the contract was with the Prosecutor General's office of the Russian Federation, which will now play a role in investigating HP. While HP knew of the investigation as far back as December, the company did not disclose the information in any SEC filings. Instead, in its most recent quarterly report, HP states that in foreign nations 'it is common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by laws and regulations.'"

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Necessity (Re:Apparently...) by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Indeed. In 3rd-world countries you must bribe if you want to compete because your competitors are bribing.

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    1. Re:Necessity (Re:Apparently...) by Nadaka · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Productivity per capita? Sorry, but that is one of the few metrics with USA still at the top. Unfortunately the average American doesn't really benefit from that hard work, it mostly goes to make the top 5% even richer.

  2. I wonder if this will lead up to the CEO? by Biff+Stu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It was Fiorina at the time.

  3. Re:Bribes are an everyday part of business at time by Yaotzin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think that punishing the people who accept bribes is more important than punishing those who bribe. It's not really fair, but if the financial climate requires bribery then obviously something is wrong. Punishing business interests for trying to succeed could lead to lowering the incentive to do business within the region. But by making sure that no one wants to accept a bribe, then you change the business climate. People accepting bribes are the real criminals.

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  4. Re:There's just so much about this... by painandgreed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Too bad for US corps, we have this law here called The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that makes it illegal to bribe foreign officials.

    Which effectively prevents a US corp from doing business in many countries if held to, including Mexico, Russia, China, etc. It is not more meant to be obeyed than the laws against bribery in the nations where bribery is the de facto method of doing business. It's just a hammer for somebody to use if you piss off somebody. You go to China but you can't do business unless you pay the bribes but if you (or the person you paid the bribes to) ever piss off the wrong person in government, then they'll hit you with those bribes they demanded. Then the US government will go "gosh, we can't support that", and the hit you with their hammer too as a form of appeasement to various parties. Just like many of the laws in the US and the powers passed after 9-11, they expect you to break something, simply because they want to have something to use against you if they need the excuse.