The company has admitted to seven counts of bribery in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan and is expected to be sentenced by judge Mr Justice Fraser on Thursday.
Of course, it’s the big bad capitalists who had bribes extorted from them who are to be found guilty and fined. The governmental types who extorted the bribes are off scot free.
Because capitalism is bad, d’ye see, while state economic power is good.
” bribery in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan ”
Could be just silly old me, but aren’t these nations notorious for Not Getting Anything Done unless you grease the palm of whoever is in charge of the office today?
The bribe takers aren’t being prosecuted because they’re foreigners living in foreign. That’s what “foreign country” means. A place where our writ does *not* run.
@jgh: unless you are the USA, which inclines to make its writ run wherever it bloody well chooses.
And anyway, why do we have British laws that essentially impose a white patriarchy and deny the authenticity of the lived experience of Africans? Whatever happened to multiculturalism and decolonisation?
Bribe Nigerian government officials and you end up in prison.
Bribe British government officials and you end up in the House of Lords.
aren’t these nations notorious for Not Getting Anything Done unless you grease the palm of whoever is in charge of the office today?
I’m amused by the pragmatic take US law has on this subject. Bribery is strictly illegal but paying “expedition fees” to ensure things get done is tax deductible.
The bribe takers aren’t being prosecuted because they’re foreigners living in foreign. That’s what “foreign country” means. A place where our writ does *not* run.
But apparently it runs for the people paying the bribes. What a curious anomaly:)
I’ve never seen the point of insisting that British levels of probity* be applied to bongo bongo land. Of course everything, especially the lives of those in said lands, would be better if they operated a higher trust society, but it is not our place to interfere.
We don’t insist that British businesses demand gay rights and bacon sandwiches when trading with the Saudis, so why deprive African of their bribes?
*such as they are, which is still better than 90% of the planet as far as I can tell.
Time to decolonise the Serious Fraud Office
Yet another nonsense New Labour law that the Tories were too stupid to repeal.
… unless Mr Justice Fraser happens to find a large brown envelope tucked behind the cistern in the judges’ bog beforehand.
Ah, no, not quite. UK law used to be that bribes – where necessary – were tax deductible. Done it myself, even checked with HMRC on how to account for them. Very pragmatic indeed they were too. Oh, Russia, yep, sure, £blibbedyblibbedy per day just to grease your way through the system is fine. Bigger amounts for significant, yep.
The American system says that all bribery is disallowed (as does UK now). The expediting fees are a little different. This is the crux of the Walmart Mexico case. Bribery is paying to get something you wouldn’t get without the payment. Expediting is paying to get something faster that you would have got eventually. So, Walmart paid in Mexio for planning permissions. Which they were legally entitled to and would – assuming – eventually get. They paid to get them faster. That’s legal. Now, if they wouldn’t have eventually got them then that’s not legal……which leads to an interesting thought of what is the meaning of “eventually”?
“Eventually” in Mexico is indistinguishable from “never”.
Grikath – Yarp.
Good luck doing business in Africa or large parts of Asia without paying people off (i hear LATAM is much the same but idk). Most of it is routine, small-spud stuff, like paying the customs officials NOT to steal or withhold your property, but “signature bonuses” also still exist in Africa and, well, it’s their gaff, their rules (even if the rules are highly informal and contradict official ‘laws’). Black guys are more practical about these things.
Tbh, who gives a fuck? If you have to bribe somebody to get oil or copper or whatever out of the ground, it really shouldn’t matter. Cost of business, intit? What matters is getting those lovely resources. Not victimless ‘crimes’ that generate wealth.
Imagine living in a world where we’re supposed to be fanatically not-racist global citizens and trying to explain to Ibrahim in Nigeria that his new enterprise grade firewalls his company paid you £400,000 for aren’t coming because you were too much of a do-gooding arsehole to pay the trifling customary customs bribes.
Ibrahim isn’t going to be impressed, and neither am I. We really are the most insufferable empire of clipboard-fondling busybody wankers the world has ever seen. It’s like we’ve been taken over by the militant wing of the Neighborhood Watch. Can we go back to being the world’s Dandy Highwaymen instead? We weren’t much loved, but at least we were respected and got shit done. Now we’re just ensuring that China gets shit done, because it turns out our African chums really don’t like being lectured by the Monopoly Man with his empty pockets turned outwards.
My micturition status: hot enough to transform into a gas.
Ah, no, not quite. UK law used to be that bribes – where necessary – were tax deductible
I remember when certain cash payments, without receipts, made in Northern Ireland for “security” purposes qualified as allowable deductions.
I had to do some training while working for a US coma by a few decades ago that touched on this area, the small pay the customs people to get your luggage and other small stuff was listed as something like ‘following local cultural customs and practices’ also meant that giving someone a gift was allowed if it was considered local cultural practice
The bigger stuff usually got wrapped up in ‘fees’
At the time it was all a very pragmatic approach to a real issue wrapped up in respecting local culture, seems like it’a not the same now which is odd as we are constantly told to stop being imperialistic and respect diversity and other cultures.
Can we jail a few politicians and NGO people for using our money to try to bribe foreign politicians to be better democrats?