Netflix Executive Sentenced to 30 Months for 700K Bribes, Kickbacks from Vendors

Post by ___q » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 5:57 PM UTC

wayoutthere wrote: post #96

president wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is effectively a race to the bottom situation and is a form of corruption of the rule of law. In today's world, we tend to have a culture of "letting things slide" and all this does is gradually normalize and escalate breaking the law over a long period of time.

It’s a side effect of having so many laws that it’s impossible not to break some of them. And this is coming from someone on the left.

Post by lordnacho » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 5:57 PM UTC

duffpkg wrote: post #83

I created a company around an Open Source Electronic Medical Records system I also created, ClearHealth. It took me a couple of years to realize we were losing deals for health systems not because our system was bad (it was great), not because our sales teams were bad (they were great) but because we weren't engaging in kick-backs and outright bribery. This has become such a normalized part of business at institution…

Post by ghaff » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 5:57 PM UTC

vishnugupta wrote: post #114

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #13

Every time this story comes up, the comments are filled with people proclaiming that kickbacks like this are totally normal and very common. I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world, or if it's people who have been part of bribery/kickback schemes themselves trying to normalize the behavior online. Either way, cases like this should make it clear that the behavior…

I know of people who AWS fully sponsored, including business class intercontinental travel, to attend re:Invent which is essentially a week long holiday party, by virtue of AWS bill. Every vendor has marketing budget and a decent portion of it goes to keeping their point people at clients happy. You can call it kick back or whatever, it’s a matter of semantics. So yes it is normal. And no it’s neither cynical and nor…

Post by BrazzVuvuzela » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 5:58 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #134

BrazzVuvuzela wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But to throw someone in jail for breaking essentially a corporate policy seems really off. It "seems off" because that obviously isn't what happened. > Jury Earlier Returned 28 Guilty Verdicts Convicting Michael Kail of Fraud and Money Laundering for Pay-To-Play Payments from Tech Startups Seeking Netflix Contracts These are crimes, not mere violations of corporate policy.

> “Bribery and kickbacks are pernicious crimes that stifle Silicon Valley’s culture of competitive innovation,” said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds. “Michael Kail used his highly compensated Netflix position to siphon cash and valuable stock options from his tech vendors, the same vendors whose Netflix contracts he signed and whose technologies he pushed his teams to use. Such crimes come with a cos…

Post by BeFlatXIII » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

Axien wrote: post #131

bko wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My question is how this could lead to jail time? I mean, its against policy, the employer can sue for damages, fire the person, etc. But to throw someone in jail for breaking essentially a corporate policy seems really off.

Netflix is a publicly traded company. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder to increase shareholder value by always selecting the best interest of the shareholders. It is way beyond a corporate policy. It is stealing shareholder value.