News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by WangComputers on Thursday December 05, 2024 @05:25PM (#42333553)
It's impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people, all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage compared to Chinese ones.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by passwordoops on Thursday December 05, 2024 @06:18PM (#42333968)
In my first real job about a decade ago, I asked the APAC/China rep why the prices were 30-40% higher... "The hookers and bribes tax. Hookers and bribes"
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by akira2501 on Thursday December 05, 2024 @06:29PM (#42334047)
> impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people

Why?

> all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage

While attempting to address a serious problem. You could say this of any law.

> compared to Chinese ones.

Not a standard I care about or am willing to be held hostage to. Moral sacrifice to capture international business is pretty gross. Probably why it wasn't even hard to pass the law.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by ip26 on Thursday December 05, 2024 @07:20PM (#42334463)
Why?

The explanation I've heard before is that when you need anything from a thoroughly corrupt government, as simple as a building permit or a visa for a foreign employee involved in a project, officials will simply not process your request without a bribe. They believe it is owed. End of story.

I don't like the explanation in the slightest. But I do see how it might shut down opportunity if you can't overpower the obstacles, and aren't willing to bribe.

The utility of US laws against bribing foreign officials is to break down the expectation by those officials of a bribe. But, from a game theory point of view, if China is willing to bribe, this becomes much less effective.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by unix_fan on Thursday December 05, 2024 @09:29PM (#42335578)
The same happens in Latin America as well. If you want to get through the layers of bureaucracy without being stuck for years in a process, you have to pay up. And it has to be a well-connected government official. That’s mostly the reason I don’t bother with anything entrepreneurship related here.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by weard_beard on Thursday December 05, 2024 @07:10PM (#42334381)
Adding: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674299344

and: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674979796

to my christmas list. I don't think the law or war are appropriate tools for establishing international morality, but maybe the right ones are somewhere in these.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by chasd00 on Thursday December 05, 2024 @09:55PM (#42335787)
You can’t put a house over your head and food in your kid’s plate with morals.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by stonogo on Friday December 06, 2024 @05:53PM (#42345454)
Sounds like a skill issue. People do it every day.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by taskforcegemini on Saturday December 07, 2024 @02:13PM (#42352056)
I hope you will change your mind before you have kids of your own
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by highcountess on Thursday December 05, 2024 @10:38PM (#42336070)
Because there is no mechanism in basically all of Africa that would put some kind of limit on it. No strong governmental institutions, no moral framework, no religious framework. And to the contrary, the African continent is largely antithetical to western/European moral, ethical, and philosophical limitations.

People just assume Africans are the same as Europeans and Asians, etc. because they’ve had it hammered into their minds all their lives, but reality is that we are all quite different and that’s good in some ways and bad in others, but it’s different.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by abdulhaq on Friday December 06, 2024 @04:43AM (#42338072)
Err totally wrong the entire north Africa has strong religious frameworks, and take Egypt as an example of a powerful government. Plenty of other places too.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by blackhawkC17 on Friday December 06, 2024 @05:28AM (#42338364)
Powerful government doesn’t imply strong institutions that uphold rule of law.

It’s usually the opposite…powerful governments rule with an iron fist but are internally marred by corruption and incompetence.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by abdulhaq on Friday December 06, 2024 @06:55AM (#42338951)
I totally agree
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by highcountess on Friday December 06, 2024 @11:55AM (#42341497)
I knew I should specify sub-Saharan Africa, because there’s always that Reddit tier knowing and willful idiot contrarian that just can’t help themselves from just being opposite for sake of being opposite, due to a severe mental derangement that compels them to be that way.

We are not talking about North Africa here, we are talking about South Africa and South Africa like places, which would mean sub-Saharan Africa, not Egypt or Algeria or Tunisia. You lack refinement and do not contribute anything useful, and may want to reflect on why you have that contrarian compulsion. No one is talking about North Africa. All the intelligent people here know we are talking about Africa in the context of South Africa. You clearly lack fundamental skills to distinguish such things.

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by axiolite on Thursday December 05, 2024 @08:26PM (#42335032)
US oil companies like ExxonMobile have survived on the international market just fine, despite the laws preventing them handing out bribes for the past several decades.

There are several examples of bribes being publicized and the guilty company losing out on big contracts as a result (e.g. from ECHELON spying).

Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by buckle8017 on Thursday December 05, 2024 @09:18PM (#42335504)
Yeah they've survived by paying bribes.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by jamesfinlayson on Friday December 06, 2024 @12:39AM (#42336713)
Yeah, I have a friend who worked in South-East Asia for a while - he said that his company paid "agents" whose job was specifically to pay the bribes on behalf of his company so that they themselves wouldn't get in trouble for paying the bribes.
Re:McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed S... by alborzb on Friday December 06, 2024 @02:08AM (#42337187)
>> US oil companies like ExxonMobile

Is that the same ExxonMobile that was caught in a bribery corruption scandal in Liberia in Africa? [1]

Or perhaps you're talking about the same ExxonMobile that was caught bribing government officials in Kazakhstan in Asia? [2]

[1] https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/full-rep...

[2] https://www.forbes.com/2003/04/23/cz_df_0423xom.html