In the wake of The New York Times scoop on Walmart’s alleged bribery of Mexican officials, Felix Salmon of Reuters suggests that it would not have been unethical for the Times to make money on the story by selling it to hedge funds a day before publication. -db From a commentary for Reuters, April 24, 2012, by Felix Salmon. Full story
A former executive for General Electric in Iraq claims he was fired for warning about a possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act while the company was striving for a huge contract with the Iraqi government. GE denies that the former employee was fired for his whistleblowing. -db From the Courthouse News Service, February 7, 2012, by Cameron Langford. Full story
After the phone-hacking scandal in Britain in which The News of the World allegedly paid bribes to police and other officials for news scoops, the Obama administration could conduct an investigation under the provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that “makes it a crime for any company with U.S. ties to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business.” It is unclear that the administration would want to use up its scarce resources