To mark the World Economic Forum’s International Anti-Corruption Day on Dec. 9, 2008, executives from companies in the Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative appear in this video inviting ideas on how to fight corruption. Speaking in the the video are (in order of appearance) Peter Bakker, Chief Executive Officer, TNT, Netherlands; Alan L. Boeckmann, President … Read more »
Category: Bribery and Corruption
Is There More White Collar Crime Today?
Sam E. Antar, the convicted felon and former CEO of Crazy Eddie, puts forth the theory that the bad economy is accusing white collar crimes to float to the surface: Is there really more white collar crime today? No. The Madoff scheme is an example of a scheme that fell apart whent he markets went … Read more »
Data on Bribe Demands in China
An anonymous online survey by TRACE International found that, of those business people visiting China who were asked for more than one bribe, almost 20 percent reported that they had been solicited more than 100 times. TRACE set up an online bribe-reporting system that allows people to file reports in different languages about bribe demands. … Read more »
The Cumulative Effect of Gift Giving
The line between holiday gift giving and corruption is very gray. You need to be concerned that traditional holiday gifts are not actually holiday corruption bribes. Not only should you look at an individual gift, you need to look to gifts to the organization as a whole. One excessive gift may seem over the top … Read more »
Right to Audit
From the KPMG 2008 Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Survey: While 63 percent of those respondents that require periodic compliance certifications said they incorporate a right-to-audit clause in their third-party contracts, a significant majority of these (68 percent) has never exercised the right (see Chart 4). A right-to-audit clause appears to be the kind of oversight expected by … Read more »
KPMG 2008 Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Survey
KPMG Forensic published its 2008 Anti-bribery and Anti-corruption Survey. KPMG surveyed 103 U.S. executives in the summer of 2008. At a time when bribery and corruption prosecutions and enforcement actions are on the rise across the globe, the results of a new KPMG LLP survey suggest that multinational organizations based in the United States continue … Read more »
Bribery’s Broken Windows
Alexandra Wrage of TRACE international wrote Bribery’s Broken Windows (.pdf) for the Q1 edition of Ethisphere. She tackles the credibility issue with allowing facilitating payments to low level officials, but saying “no” to senior ranking official. She advocates that the companies should prohibit payments at all levels. She looks to the New York subway system’s … Read more »
The Costs of Corruption
The damage and inefficiency caused by corruption, in either financial or social terms, should not be underestimated. The World Bank has estimated that more that US$ 1 Trillion is paid in bribes annually. See World Bank, “The Costs of Corruption” (8 April 2004). An Ernst & Young survey of executives indicated that almost half of … Read more »
Famous Financial Felons
AOL’s Money and Finance Section put together a slideshow of 18 famous financial criminals, with their crimes and what they are doing now: Financial Felons: Where Are They Now? Read more »
Siemens Reserves $1.3 Billion to Settle Corruption Charges
The German conglomerate Siemens has set aside $1.3 billion to settle an ongoing corruption investigation according to CFO.com: Siemens Reserves $1.3 Billion for Probe. Back in April, international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, hired by Siemens to investigate bribery and corruption charges dating back to the late 1990s, found evidence of violations of domestic … Read more »