I've had an enterprise vendor offer to drop money into my personal account to make sales. Not naming them, but the sad thing is they actually did have the best product in their space by a long shot. The ones who sucked were probably even better at bribes.

I have seen a high-profile CTO dismissed for just cause because he accepted an invitation to speak at a vendor conference in Paris. When hired, we signed a very strict code of conduct document that prevented us from accepting any valuable gifts from vendors.

A vendor once sent me a mug. I had to open the box in front of a witness.

That sounds like the definition of a bribe, which is a crime. I would advise you to not make this information public or at least public under an account that can be traced back to you.

I'm aware of this, that's why I mentioned it. I didn't accept the bribe and am happy for this to be published under my real name.

Why should he care? He didn't say he accepted the bribe, merely that it was offered.

My company requires we need to report that stuff. Also need to take a training every year on what you can accept and what you can't.

Perhaps it was reported. He didn't specify either way, possibly for good reason.

>>That sounds like the definition of a bribe, which is a crime.

It is. It happens all the time. I get similar offers regularly in my growing startup. It's usually couched better than that, but it's not rare.