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Comment by hannofcart | Hacker News Reader

Not sure how the law works in said jurisdiction but shouldn't the companies that bribed him also see some punishments? I see some rather prominent names in the list of vendors who chose to "pay to play".

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Its best to punish only one side of a bribe arrangement -- usually, the one granting access in exchange for cash. The reason is that the more parties that have a strong incentive to keep the bribe arrangement a secret, the more likely it will remain a secret. This is especially true with poorer countries' police forces. If you punish the guy trying to get out of a traffic ticket, you just cement the corrupt cop's power. What you want to do is turn the bribe-taker's position into a very lonely one.

Obviously not the same jurisdiction, but this is how it works under UK law. Interestingly it also applies to representatives of that business working abroad which makes certain types of business very difficult to conduct (for example, moving freight in countries where bribery is routine: pay the bribe and you've broken UK law, don't pay the bribe and your product sits in the port waiting for spurious customs paperwork for months).

It is illegal for anyone working for an American company to bribe anyone in any country anywhere.

Work for a big enough company and you will be told that at least once a year in “training.”

Observe big American companies doing business all over the world and you will conclude the law is... selectively applied.

I’m not sure, but I would guess this is advantageous to the US government in that US companies are allowed to compete globally but there is a wink-wink nudge-nudge acknowledgement they could be prosecuted at any time if they don’t play nice with Washington on other issues.

It really depends on the bribery you are talking about, there's definitely some exceptions enshrined when you pay to grease the wheels for normal actions.

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/515229/a-resource-guid...

The FCPA’s bribery prohibition contains a narrow exception for “facilitating or expediting payments” made in furtherance of routine governmental action.159 The facilitating payments exception applies only when a payment is made to further “routine governmental action” that involves non-discretionary acts.160 Examples of “routine governmental action” include processing visas, providing police protection or mail service, and supplying utilities like phone service, power, and water. Routine government action does not include a decision to award new business or to continue business with a particular party.161 Nor does it include acts that are within an official’s discretion or that would constitute misuse of an official’s office

My question as well. Similarly when corporations bribe politicians.

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