Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.
It’s frustrating that law only applies to the lower classes, and not to the upper corporate classes
Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
241–250 of 409 posts
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#242There 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
Did you mean former vice president? his father got a new job last year.
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
The irony is the bribes are, of course, a requirement to operate in the US as a large corporation, but here they’re laundered as “lobbying” and “campaign donations.”
It’s really not the same thing. Bribery undermines the rule of law. Lobbying helps form it. The difference may seem subtle but it isn’t. If you believe US lawmakers are taking bribes please provide evidence because that is a Big Deal. If you believe lobbying is harmful to our democratic processes please present that argument directly.
[deleted]
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
In almost every country with a dictator and human right abuses, you will find a constitution guarantying civil rights and liberties of the individual... [1] - "The Constitution of the Russian Federation" Article 17 1. In the Russian Federation recognition and guarantees shall be provided for the rights and freedoms of man and citizen according to the universally recognized principles and norms of international law an…
The title is a bit inflammatory, but in this clip from Scalia's testimony relates the overall concept well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggz_gd--UO0
Scalia has some good points, however some notes
A gridlocked political system is not guaranteed to create "good legislation" as Scalia puts it, take US as a prime example of that, almost every legislation is packed with pork and other things unrelated to the legalisation itself.
To Scalia defence he might have meant "not awful legislation", like avoid harming a minority, because of the bicameral legislature. But good legislation? No.
It is true that in Europe it is common to mix the legislative and the executive with the same election and thus chamber. However in Sweden the executive power is divided in half, with the elected prime minister with his cabinet (regeringen) on the one hand and the independent government agencies (myndigheter) on the other. This is a separation of powers that US doesn't have.
And it is in the executive that has the highest risk of political corrupt behaviour, because it deals with all the practical details of running a country, therefore separating the executive into two separate branches, the elected and the civil servants, creates better protection against political corruption.
Scalia main argument is that US can't become the Soviet union because of the bicameral gridlock built into the system, however what we have seen in the US when the legislature is politically paralyzed is that the executive, and to some extent the judiciary, has encroached on the legislative powers.
How many of the wars that US has been involved in since the second world war has been formally approved constitutionally by the senate? Zero.
Did President Obama execute a US citizen without a trial? Yes.
This is a gap in Scalias argument, the executive power is too unrestricted, hence it is the US executive power that will be removing citizen rights from the citizenry, not the legislature.
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#245Bribing in Africa is so common it could be considered a business practice
I worked briefly for a startup that wanted a .sy domain. That's Syria. They had to get the State Dept. involved (Hillary Clinton had to sign one of the documents, she was Sec. of State at the time.) The package they sent to Syria was a kind of Matryoshka doll: a package with some grease (cash!) and another package inside, that in turn had the grease for the next level of the bureaucracy and another package for them to pass on, which contained more grease and another package... All in all four or five layers of payments and bureaucracy. They got the domain name but then abandoned it for some reason I don't know (I suspect it was just more trouble than it was worth to have "foo.sy" and deal with Syrian government rather than just "foosy.com".) US$20,000 down the drain. FWIW this was all official enough that it wasn't legally bribery.
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#246If a government organization would want to use a Linux, how hard would it actually be? Is it a viable alternative?
I spent 7 years working with digitalisation in the Danish public sector and it depends on what you mean, and what you want to pay for it. Basically the short answer is that it is impossible. What is often forgotten about non-tech enterprise here on HN is that a typical public sector organisation has a ratio of 20-50 IT people (this is everyone, from the network and operations people to developers and project managers…
I do use Office365 on linux, I even develop Office plugins under Linux. So it would seem like a transition to cloud software would be the enabler of Linux based operating systems?
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#247Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#248Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.
Finally an episode of SoBC where Nelson ends up blindfolded, kidnapped and taken to a black ops site? /s Former here, too, I found it part of "big company" overhead. Had similar things many years ago at a different European based employer.
SoBC?
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#249I like how there is a ton of commentary on how to skip ethics training. If you are thinking of skipping ethics training... That training might be targeted at you.
Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes
#250I’m disappointed but not surprised that the title is editorialized. It specifically leaves off “whistleblower alleges”. It’s literally one disgruntled former employee claiming this. But as usual for HN these days a tiny populations claim - in this case a population of one - is stated as fact.
Bribery is pretty common. In many countries you almost cannot do anything without greasing wheels. My Father was a head of publicly traded pharma. Stories he had about China and India in particular were fascinating and sad at the same time. One time he was told that somebody dumped a huge pile of paper trash in front of his newly opened drug packaging facility in China. He investigated to find there culprit. It turns out it was from a paper factory owner nearby. Asked why he did it, his answer was : “you didn’t use my company as your paper supplier”. My fathers response: “how was I supposed to know there was a paper supplier nearby!! And why didn’t you come and introduce yourself before ?!?!”
He ended up using the supplier and they did haul away the mountains of trash.