Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hewlett-Packard Admits To International Bribery and Money Laundering Schemes

Posted by samzenpus on from the was-that-wrong? dept.

First time accepted submitter CP (1315157) writes "Hewlett-Packard has admitted to [bribery and money laundering] in order to profiteer off of lucrative government contracts in Russia, Poland, and Mexico, according to court documents. HP's guilty plea carries with it a $108 million penalty — a combination of SEC penalties, as well as criminal fines and forfeitures paid out to the Department of Justice. Thus far no criminal charges have been brought against American HP executives. The multi-agency investigation, which was conducted by multi-national law enforcement partners, the FBI, IRS, and SEC, has revealed kleptocracies in the three foreign governments and corruption and dishonesty among HP corporate fat cats."

9 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Corporations are not people by msobkow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Corporations are not people. They don't make decisions. Executives make decisions.

    Lock the bastards up.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:Corporations are not people by BurfCurse · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most of this happened longer than 5 years ago under different leadership. HP is still suffering from the mistakes of the past. HP was financially successful then but at a cost. This is the way people like Mark Hurd do business. Its all about short term gains. Being told your pay was being cut because of difficult times and it was necessary in order to survive, only to find out that 6 months later HP had record profits. That's why all the top performer's no longer work there.

    2. Re:Corporations are not people by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Informative

      Really.

      Has there ever been a single documented case in the whole of history where the shareholders have ever successfully (or even unsuccessfully, for that matter) sued a company because the company wasn't doing enougl illegal stuff to bolster profits?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:Corporations are not people by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Then find the people responsible for the laundering and bribery five years ago and put them in jail.

      Never happens, though. Two-tiered justice system. If you're rich, you get fined instead of going to jail. Just gotta make sure the government gets its beak wet. If you're poor, lock 'em up and throw away the key.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  2. No subject. by Himmy32 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Hewlett-Packard has admitted to in order to profiteer off of lucrative government contracts in Russia, Poland, and Mexico, according to court documents.

    It's cool if you want to take part of the story for the summary, but you dropped out an important part.

    The Original:
    Hewlett-Packard has admitted to creating and using slush funds for bribes, money laundering, and clandestine “bag of cash” handoffs in order to profiteer off of lucrative government contracts in Russia, Poland, and Mexico, according to court documents.

  3. Re:$108 million penalty by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even inside the corporate bubble it's actually less than what a teenager could get for sharing a few music files with his friends.

    --
    No sig today...
  4. this shit is infuriating by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to someone who lives, on a a daily basis, with the discrimination and stigma of being a convicted felon for minor drug offenses, these kind of articles piss me off to no end.

    these corporate douchebags can blatantly break federal, state, and international laws and not even lose their jobs, where people like me who got caught with some recreational substance see their entire careers and life go into the toilet.

    fuck those HP crooks, AND the DOJ they rode in on.

    --
    never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
  5. Re:$108 million penalty by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

    HP's annual revenue is on the order of $100Bn, so $108m is about 0.1% of their income. The median US household income is about $40,000, so this would be equivalent to you receiving a $40 fine.

    For international bribery and money laundering.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  6. US equivalent of Bribery Act by benjfowler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the UK, we have a particularly strict law called the Bribery Act 2010, which is good, because it not only prohibits giving and receiving bribes to win business, but it also prohibits failing to prevent it.

    Does America have anything even close? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if they don't, because the US rent-seeker corporate Right would fight it tooth and nail.