Wait, Oracle sales reps give decision-makers personal kickbacks for buying Oracle??
Stay classy Oracle. Such a banal depth of evil.
Why hasn't this been outlawed?
I guess companies that knowingly employ such managers deserve to lose whatever Oracle's legal team extracts out of them.
They've been charged multiple times for bribing foreign government officials.
https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022-173
This is why corporate procurement in a large enterprise is so bureaucratic. If you have 20 layers of approval that's 20 people that need cocaine and prostitutes yet could blow the whistle.
> Wait, Oracle sales reps give decision-makers personal kickbacks for buying Oracle??
When Oracle does it, it's a scandal. But when an airline gives people personal 'miles' for their business trips, it's business as usual.
You've clearly never purchased enterprise software at scale before. Oracle doesn't do anything that everyone else isn't already doing.
Dinners, drinks, bottles of scotch, tickets to baseball and football games, plane tickets to attend training sessions in conference rooms attached to nice beachside hotels, business lunches at strip clubs, Superbowl tickets, cruise tickets, wristwatches...
Not to mention mugs, tshirts, water bottles and stickers.
Everything is on the menu.
Our company has a strict gift giving and no-bribes policy. Everyone needs to sign that they have read it. It is even more extensive for the sales/procurement teams.
Of course, I signed many such agreements. I've also turned down a ton of "gifts" such as these.
But oftentimes they are not clearly gifts or bribes. For example, inviting you or your team out for dinner and drinks can be harmless.
It's not unusual to take clients out, even to sporting events. As long as the host party is present, and there is intent to network or discuss business, it usually qualifies as "corporate hospitality" -- even the strip club!
All expensed and paid for out of the marketing budget. A far cry from gifts or bribes, apparently!
I'm calling my senators and house rep.
Holy crap.
Not sure why you're surprised. That's just how business/networking/capitalism works everywhere on earth and it's been like that since the dawn of civilization. And why would Congress stop is since they're all getting the same benefits and don't even hide it?
I guess I thought integrity was still at least considered an ideal to strive for in the West.
That imaginary integrity never existed. If anything, favors for favors are now less common than they used to be.
Well, nothing specific to capitalism here.
There is a scene in a French documentary in which a former Dassault boss displays his vintage wine collection as one of his many tools to ease arms supply deals with various nations. When the journalist asked him if it really works like this he responded, “Of course, because men are pigs!”
Your naivete is refreshing, but not particularly useful.
Your senators and house reps are the beneficiary of various forms of largesse from political donors.
"Billionaire ** and her *** ** *** are among the most prolific megadonors in modern American political history, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars overwhelmingly to ***, ****"