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Hewlett-Packard Pleads Guilty To Bribing Officials in Russia, Poland, and Mexico
Charliemopps writes Hewlett-Packard and three subsidiaries pleaded guilty Thursday to paying bribes to foreign officials in Russia, Mexico and Poland and agreed to pay $108 million in criminal and regulatory penalties. For over 10 years Hewlett-Packard kept 2 sets of books to track slush-funds they used to bribe government officials for favorable contracts.
From the article:
According to the Justice Department, HP Poland paid more than $600,000 in cash bribes and gifts, travel and entertainment to the the police agency's director of information and communications technology. HP Poland gave the government official bags filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash, provided the official with HP desktop and laptop computers, mobile devices and other products and took the official on a leisure trip to Las Vegas, which included a private tour flight over the Grand Canyon, the Justice Department said.
The foreign officials probably weren't reporting the income on their taxes, either.
best to do the time in Poland the other places are shit.
Where will the money come from? Somehow I don't think it'll be execs who are "rightsized".
Where's the prison terms? Where's the personal liability for CxOs? No, they are likely not directly accountable for the actions of every single individual employee, but they are responsible for the actions of the company in general. When the company does something illegal, the boss should pay the penalty; it's the only way to justify the ludicrous money they make.
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So they admitted to doing business in Poland, Russia and Mexico. Big deal.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
When you start down the road of bribery and corruption, just know that you can never get off it.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Of course the bribes to all levels of politicians in the US are legal and are called donations, that and revolving door syndrome.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Did the Justice Department feel left out, or where they just upset HP was two timing them?
In the US we legalized bribery - we just call it campaign contributions and lobbying. In uncivilized countries they have to do it all fashioned way.
Sounds like your typical corporate junket.... except these aren't corporation!
No sig here...
I cannot imagine either of those two approving of such business practices.
Hmm, 10 years ago, so that means 2004. That means during Carly Fiorina's reign, then Mark Hurd, then Leo Apotheker, then Meg Whitman.
I guess bribery and corruption must be good for shareholder value? Hey, bribery is just part of unfettered capitalism, isn't it?
This is different from lobbyists giving "campaign contributions" how?
The same thing happens everywhere, it's just a matter of the form it takes.
At this point, I assume all politicians and all corporations are corrupt.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
What many in the U.S. don't realize is that what we call bribery is SOP in some countries. Not that it makes it right, or legal, but it may be the only way for a company to do business there. I've witnessed this first hand in a couple places, with local government officials who would just not process paperwork unless you "tip" them.
Just another day in Paradise
...all Polish sources feature prominent headlines to the effect of "HP sentenced to multi-million fine for unfair business practices in Russia and Mexico". They barely even mention the fact that the local officials were, apparently, taking those sweet, sweet bribes too.
Funny how that works out, eh? It's only fair to mention, though, that most Polish conventional/old media are owned by members or strong supporters of either of the two current majority parties (The right-wing Citizen Platform, and the so-right-wing-we-had-to-pick-an-evil-sounding-name Law and Justice party), neither of which have an interest in covering this whole mess, as it would implicate them both.
Back a couple years ago the company I worked for got bought out by Dell. Dell had very strong anti-bribery policies in place for both domestic and international scenarios.
I guess HP didn't buy into that so much.
These are felonies. So, who is going to prison, or at least to court, for these egregious actions? The senior corporate officials who approved these actions? Not likely! If anybody does, it will be some lower-level schlub whose signature is on the paperwork... :-(
As a U.S. company, youse can't engage in bribe and corruption in other countries. Youse have to engage in bribe and corruption in this country first. If youse don', t'ings could happen. You know, t'ings.
Sad, because they used to be high quality too. Recently though all their stuff has turned to shit.
Nothing will change until someone at the bribing company is personally held responsible and faces the danger of jail time
I'm sure HP does business in the UK, therefore they can be prosecuted under this regardless of where the crimes took place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribery_Act_2010
"The penalties for committing a crime under the Act are a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment, along with an unlimited fine, and the potential for the confiscation of property under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, as well as the disqualification of directors under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. The Act has a near-universal jurisdiction, allowing for the prosecution of an individual or company with links to the United Kingdom, regardless of where the crime occurred. Described as "the toughest anti-corruption legislation in the world",[1] concerns have been raised that the Act's provisions criminalise behaviour that is acceptable in the global market, and puts British business at a competitive disadvantage."
Nowadays, HP is a mere shadow of its former self. Former self being the days when its test and measurement division (now Agilent) was an innovation powerhouse.
" ... I assume all politicians and all corporations are corrupt ...à except the difference is that at least in the civilized regions of the world when government bureaucrats take bribes they do it secretly and carefully hide such actions, while in the corrupt 3rd world regimes - like Poland - most government officials quite openly give you clear Ãoehintsà that without greasing the wheels nothing will ever get done.
In Poland the culture of corruption is so pervasive that when you for example get into an accident and have some cash on you that last thing you want is call an ambulance: the emergency workers (of course government employees) will immediately take your wallet and clean it empty, and then later return it with a smile saying: Ãoethere was nothing in itÃ.
When the USG gives $, its foreign aid.
When an actually productive company does, its bribery.
Right.
for western companies operating in Russia is to hire "logistics consultants" among locals who do all the actual bribing. It provides a degree of separation - a plausible deniability.
What are 'official bags'? Are those the ones with a big dollar sign on the side?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
Since corporations are people too, when can it be placed on the public record that Hewlett-Packard has been officially incarcerated?
It doesn't make it a good thing, but the reality of international business is that bribery is required if you want to do business in some countries. This looks like it was pretty overt though, so that's probably why they got caught. I work for a multinational that routinely has to ship equipment all over the world. There are some places like Africa and the Middle East where your stuff will never clear customs without someone getting paid, or you have to pay someone off to make sure it doesn't disappear. There's a whole shadowy "import/export freight forwarding" industry that companies use to avoid directly bribing customs officers and other civil servants. It's kind of like a cash business owner cheating on his taxes -- no one ever talks about it, but you know it's happening to some extent. The bribe money is included in the freight fees so that companies can pretend it doesn't happen.
Paying off some underpaid civil servant is one thing - it sounds like HP was directly giving money to top government officials. That's where the real line is when you're talking about punishable bribery. I wonder how they got caught -- it sounds like they had a pretty elaborate system set up. The only thing I can think of is that someone tipped them off because they didn't get paid enough or they were jealous when they found out someone else was getting a big payday. Once you start paying bribes or extortion money, you have to realize it will never stop.
Which is why those payments have an explicit exemption in FCPA - making it completely different from a cash business owner committing tax evasion.
Countries most likely to require a bribe (per Transparency International)
1. Russia
2. China
3. Mexico
4. Indonesia
5. United Arab Emirates
6. Argentina
7. Saudi Arabia
8. Turkey
9. India
10. Taiwan
Sometimes bribery is just expected. Russians have been brow-beaten by their ruling class(es) since the dawn of time. If you were to moan about paying a bribe there, grandmother passers-by would tell you to nut up and just get it done. In China, it's simply an expected part of business-- gifts of all sorts and money are expected when visiting offices, homes, and closing deals. Mexico's just messed up. They've not had a stable government since the narco cartels took over.
If my FCPA training is worth anything, both you and your company can be on the hook for fines and jail time. But I don't know what the specifics are with this case.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Say it aint so!