Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 409 posts

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#101

Post by ipaddr »

vbezhenar wrote: post #46
mc32 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the bribes being directed by MS US or are these things taking place in overseas offices where customs are different? One example was Hungary --I imagine Ukraine and Nigeria too would have executives there who are part of the local culture where they do things differently. While the actions go afoul of US law, they may be in line with local customs culture and practices --that is harder to root out as now you are…

I live in Kazakhstan and while I don't have any evidence, I'm pretty sure that many huge western companies operating here bribed officials. I don't think that's necessary part of local culture. Of course in poor country officials with $200/month salary are happy to get $1000 gift for signing $100 000 agreement. Western companies are huge part of corruption source here. That's my opinion. I've heard that Ikea decided…

If Ikea did not bribe and failed to get approval perhaps it is part of the local culture of getting anything approved

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#102

Post by com2kid »

criddell wrote: post #50
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

I read a story yesterday[1] how the policy inside Google is to cc their legal department on any emails that you think could make the company look bad in any future legal proceedings. As I understand it, this shields the email from discovery. Did you have similar guidelines inside Microsoft? [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30760923

When I was at MS I once saw someone from legal jump into the middle of an email thread, that he wasn't on, and shut it down.

That was... interesting to say the least.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#103

Post by missedthecue »

otterley wrote: post #100
missedthecue wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that's more or less observably true

Go on...

I don't think every culture has exactly the same ethical framework. One can easily imagine a few different examples where that's not the case.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#104

Post by hammock »

nashashmi wrote: post #30

There is a lot of supposition from the article based on a single source that these payments were bribes. These kinds of articles are really calling wolf when there are none. And potentially downplay instances when actual wolves are spotted. This is a hit piece from a potential competitor trying to do business in the same market. Going to add further the article has way too much fluff. It’s a play on reader psychology…

Agreed. Reminds me of the payments of as much as $183K a month from a Ukrainian natgas company to a man with no energy sector experience that just happened to be the son of the US Vice President. There's no evidence it was a bribe, just a hit piece, probably from a competitor like Russia

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#105

Post by tedajax »

asd88 wrote: post #17
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

My thoughts exactly. Every year, the Standards of Business Conduct training talks about not bribing foreign officials and devs are like “who the hell is ever in that position anyway?”.

Me desperately trying to get a decent repro case for a bizarre networking bug in Halo: "Oh man, gotta remember, better not bribe any foreign officials while I sort this out."

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#107

Post by ipaddr »

edgyquant wrote: post #65
aeternum wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your definition of bribe then? Keep in mind that in countries like Cambodia and Yemen, something like 70% of public companies receive bribes. It is very much common practice and culturally acceptable.

I would say at that level of acceptance it isn’t a bribe.

It is a bribe but it is accepted and perhaps not illegal

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#108

Post by Melatonic »

striking wrote: post #73
jimbob45 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His example was fine and doesn’t stand alone. Who’s to say that other countries don’t consider US lobbying to be a form of bribery? Realistically, no country is going to see their own bribery as actual bribery because no one wants to have to blatantly admit they’re the bad guy.

There are laws around transparency in lobbying in the US. It would be bribery if you didn't abide by those laws when conducting your lobbying activities.

It is also super easy to get around those transparencies - the lobbying system in the US is for sure a big big problem

Bribery with extra steps!

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#109

Post by rosndo »

missedthecue wrote: post #80
igetspam wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While in India once, I ran into a friend from Google who was out there trying to build a data center. Total coincidence that we were both there at the same time. I was there to hire and train for another company and he was there to break ground. He'd been there for week and they'd yet to start doing more than some bare minimums related to surveys and permits. I was surprised that he was there at all, given the curren…

Meanwhile in America and the entire west to an extent, you have the government trying to "bribe" businesses to open in their jurisdiction through tax incentives and so forth. Really interesting cultural difference.

It’s the lack of corruption.

In India the projects are blocked by individual officials seeking to line their pockets, they don’t care if that causes their area to lose out on the project.

Post reply on HN