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

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

#311

Post by philjohn »

wolverine876 wrote: post #261
tored wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Let's remember that Scalia was a judge, not a political theorist or a legislative expert. Scalia's expertise would be the operation of the judiciary, courtrooms, etc.

That doesn't track with what I've read ... Unitary Executive Theory for instance.

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

#312

Post by whimsicalism »

burntoutfire wrote: post #281
wolverine876 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People downplay such training, but imagine the environment without it. Imagine if nobody officially talked about corrupt practices: it would create a very dark place for such things to occur, nobody would know what the rules are or what to do, and especially the silence would speak very loudly. Edit: By training everyone , not just the people directly involved with such situations, anyone considering corrupt acts wil…

People know that what they hear in the training videos and how they must really act are two different things. If you find out that your boss's boss is corrupting goverment officials in Poland to get a $100m contract (a real case BTW, involving one of MS's big competitors), do you really think the company wants you to raise alarm and blow that contract? What good does it do to your boss's boss career, or the sharehold…

I think Enron would have been better off if someone had blown the whistle early. Probably would still be in existence.

Me, I'd be more likely to narc to the government, especially if I can get a share of the penalty like SEC narcs do.

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

#313

Post by hulitu »

rirze wrote: post #207
mupuff1234 wrote: post #193

If a government organization would want to use a Linux, how hard would it actually be? Is it a viable alternative?

Didn't Germany at one point, try to do this? I'm not sure if they still are using Linux. Also certain Chinese agencies are most definitely using custom distros.

> Didn't Germany at one point, try to do this? I'm not sure if they still are using Linux.

Well Gates made a "visit" in Münich to "convince" them that windows is better.

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

#314

Post by gmiller123456 »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

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

Pointy Haired Boss: Everyone must attend mandatory ethics class at noon.

Dilbert: Is it ethical to steal our lunch hour to make us attend a work class?

Pointy Haired Boss: I wouldn't know, I'm not required to take the training.

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

#315

Post by hulitu »

wolverine876 wrote: post #295
lkxijlewlf wrote: post #161

I am just so sick of all the cheating. Every time you turn around, some business, politician, or wealthy person is corrupt as f** and everyone who can do anything about it won't.

What are you doing about it? It's a democracy - like open source software, if you don't like it, change it.

It is not a democracy. It is a corrupted democracy.

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

#317

Post by madrox »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #303
madrox wrote: post #296

I was prepared to get my pitchfork out, but after reading I'm struggling to connect the dots. This article is scant on details of what illegal or favorable behavior Microsoft is expecting in exchange for money. The only concrete mention is a previous SEC filing that has nothing to do with this whistleblower. The first example about $40k doesn't seem to explain what Microsoft was actually thinking it would get for tha…

An Overview The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality o…

You'll need to draw that line a little clearer, because it's not starkly clear to me. I'm aware of the definition of bribery. I don't think anything mentioned here describes graft as much as it describes the reseller business unless there is some law that limits the amount of money a reseller makes on a deal, or that a purchaser is required to use all of said purchase. In the Saudi example, the contractor got a great deal, but that's hardly illegal. In the Qatar example, buying more seats than you use is a common problem and any company that sells based on seats is guilty of this on some level.

For me to take this farther than "that's how reselling works," there'd need to be some signs that Microsoft employees or government officials were seeing kickbacks from these inefficient deals...basically, the resellers were the ones doing the bribing. The whistleblower seems to be insinuating that's happening, and maybe it is, but there's no hard evidence of it here or that it's something systemic that Microsoft is promoting (indeed, Microsoft would be one of the victims in that case). Without more detail on what exactly Microsoft was extracting out of these circumstances I find the whole thing vague.

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

#318

Post by aaronbrethorst »

com2kid wrote: post #102
criddell wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Someone smart bcc'd LCA.

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

#319

Post by hn_version_0023 »

mikestew wrote: post #289
wolverine876 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "who the hell is ever in that position anyway?" Microsoft does business worldwide, of course. Wouldn't that imply that many are in that position?

and devs are like... How many MSFT devs do you think travel to foreign countries to close deals? I do not think one has to have worked there to come up with, "mmm, probably not very many", and thus devs are like, "WTF do I have to watch this?"

As nearly always, its the people that touch the money who are most likely to be corrupt. By which I obviously mean salespeople.

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

#320

Post by sakex »

hulitu wrote: post #316
sakex wrote: post #151

Bribing in Africa is so common it could be considered a business practice

It is not limited to Africa. First world countries like to call it with a different name: lobby.

True, insider information is another big one
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