The U.S. is Now Investigating Chinese Telecom Giant ZTE For Alleged Bribery (nbcnews.com) 15
ZTE, the Chinese telecom giant that pleaded guilty three years ago to violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea, is the subject of a new and separate bribery investigation by the Justice Department, NBC News reported Friday, citing two people briefed on the matter. From the report: The new investigation, which has not been reported previously, centers on possible bribes ZTE paid to foreign officials to gain advantages in its worldwide operations. The fresh scrutiny on ZTE comes just after the end of the corporate probation period agreed to under the March 2017 plea agreement it struck with the Justice Department. Under the agreement, ZTE agreed to a civil and criminal penalty and forfeiture of $1.19 billion. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. In a statement, a representative of ZTE said: "ZTE is fully committed to meeting its legal and compliance obligations. The top priority of the company's leadership team is making ZTE a trusted and reliable business partner in the global marketplace, and the company is proud of the enormous progress it has made. Beyond this, it would not be appropriate for ZTE to comment."
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(True Score -999 massively redundant and not related to topic at hand)
Give it up, nobody cares
"Why won't the Chinese cooperate?" asks Trump (Score:2)
Your [garyisabusyguy's] comment is scarcely a constructive reaction to the AC FP problem. The troll probably wanted your attention, ANY attention. FP should be EARNED, not blathered.
So let me focus on the obvious aspect that matters. Trump has "worked" as hard as he could (between rounds of golf, "campaign" rallies, and angry tweets) to antagonize and attack China in every way possible. Xi would be insane to trust Trump for anything. One of the negative results was that Xi didn't tell him what he [Xi] knew.
World Police? (Score:3)
While I understand that bribery is not a standard business practice in the US, and even illegal for US firms to participate in, but it is widely practices throughout the world.
How can the US hold another country at fault for a business practice that is a global standard when not dealing with the US?
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It's protected speech in the USA, according to the Supreme Court. What is illegal is paying foreign government officials [wikipedia.org]. Not because of some high horse moral position. But that's money which could have gone into some US politicians' pockets.
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You only think the US politicians are above this. They just have to hide it better behind meme sophistry that useful idiots will trumpet.
They ladle millions of dollars in burden, to back off a bit in exchange for tens of thousands, a rate of a tiny fraction of 1% of personal benefit to much slowing burden. And are cheered on by the misled who believe the surface meme.
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While I understand that bribery is not a standard business practice in the US, and even illegal for US firms to participate in, but it is widely practices throughout the world.
How can the US hold another country at fault for a business practice that is a global standard when not dealing with the US?
Because that's what trade agreements do. Countries agree to standard conduct and regulations when doing trade, and part of that allows criminal charges against violators.
ZTE could just say screw you we're not coming to your trial, but they would never be allowed to do business with any company that the USA and its trading partners do business with, and that's kind of a death penalty.
China is probably more angry at ZTE than the USA is because China's government had coincidentally coughed up $500 million to t
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How can the US hold another country at fault for a business practice that is a global standard when not dealing with the US?
When the company (not "country") does business in the US. As the article notes, "The company's headquarters are in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, but ZTE's U.S. subsidiary is in Richardson, Texas."
U.N. Anticorruption treaty (Score:2)
While I understand that bribery is not a standard business practice in the US, and even illegal for US firms to participate in, but it is widely practices throughout the world.
How can the US hold another country at fault for a business practice that is a global standard when not dealing with the US?
China is a signatary country of the UN anticorruption treaty, as well as some other international regulations. Based on those, other signatary parties can investigate corruption acts of companies in other signatary states.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en... [unodc.org]
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It is known as the American Trap [amazon.com], packaged under the disguise of laws.
Bribery? Really? Like Siemens and so many others? (Score:3)
Most if not all of these companies engage in bribery, depending on the country, and the specific personnel in specific countries. But some are more blantant than others.
If you know my post history, you know what I mean when I say this will lead to some juicy findings...
https://www.dw.com/en/siemens-... [dw.com]
"This is in addition to the fine of 201 million euros levied against Siemens by German judges in October 2007 for misdeeds at Siemens' former telecommunications unit, Com Group."
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Bribery - makes sense (Score:2)
After all, a timely $500 million loan got ZTE special treatment from a certain president a year or so ago...
Re: Bribery - makes sense (Score:2)
Buuuuuut, this fishing expedition is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In addition to being notoriously wicked, cruel, and corrupt - the Southern District is well known as a stronghold of reactionary "Progressive" Democrat Party tools.
Looking for another loan (Score:3)
Does the Trump property developer need another loan?
Trump's controversial ZTE order came days after the Chinese government provided millions to a Trump Organization-tied project [businessinsider.com]
Trump Indonesia project gets Chinese government partner [apnews.com]