The fallout continues over WalmartMexicoGate, a term I just made up right now that will likely never be used again. A shareholder in the nation’s largest retailer has filed a lawsuit against the company’s board of directors over the bad press tied to allegations that Walmart spent millions of dollars bribing folks in Mexico. [More]
Pfizer To Pay $60 Million To Settle Bribery Allegations
By November 21, 2011
Drug giant Pfizer will have to squirt out $60 million in order to settle allegations from the feds that it bribed foreign companies, violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids companies from making deals by paying off foreign officials. [More]
Defense Department Employee Accused Of Taking Bribe
By August 26, 2011
Bidding wars for defense contracts make particularly fertile ground for corruption, and a federal employee may have gotten caught with his hand stuck in the cookie jar. Federal authorities have accused an Afghanistan-based U.S. Department of Defense employee of taking a bribe from a company there in exchange for helping to secure a government contract. The suspect was caught with a backpack stuffed with $95,000 in alleged bribe money. [More]
Soccer Officials Suspended In Bribery Scandal
By May 30, 2011
Long-standing accusations of corruption in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the world soccer governing body, have picked up traction lately, forcing two top officials in the organization to step aside in light of accusations that they offered $40,000 bribes to two dozen officials in an attempt to buy their votes for the presidency. [More]
BCS "Punishes" Fiesta Bowl By Making It Donate $1 Million To Charity
By May 13, 2011
After the Fiesta Bowl revealed it had misspent funds, buying extravagant, bribe-like gifts for power brokers — including strip club outings — and coercing illegal campaign contributions from staffers, Bowl Championship Series officials rattled their sabers. But despite vague threats to possibly strip the Arizona-based bowl game of its lofty BCS status, the organization has let the bowl off the hook with a stern lecture and an non-punishing punishment. [More]
IBM Pays $10 Million To Settle Charges It Bribed Asian Governments
By March 21, 2011
After the Securities and Exchange Commission accused IBM of bribing officials in Asian countries to secure government contracts over an 11-year period, the company agreed to pay a $10 million settlement. [More]
Virgin America Out To Bribe Twitter Whores With Free Flights
By June 22, 2010
If your Twitter feed starts blowing up with effusive praise for Virgin America, it may be because the airline has influenced those sets of 140 characters with free flights. [More]
Samsung Sues Journalist For Satirically Pointing Out That Its Chairman Keeps Getting Convicted Of Crimes
By May 11, 2010
Did you know that the chairman of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, was convicted in 2008 for tax evasion in South Korea? Or that he was convicted in the 90s for bribing politicians? A British journalist, Michael Breen, wrote a satirical column in a South Korean newspaper last December, and now the electronics giant is suing him for libel. If found guilty, Breen could face jail time. [More]
Here Are America's Most Corrupt Industries
By April 28, 2010
Do you work in a corrupt industry? The Daily Beast took a look at data gathered by Transparency International, a “global anti-corruption think tank,” and put together a list of America’s most corrupt professions. Everyone may be hating on Wall Street right now, but the worst offenders according to the criteria used are utilities. In second and third place were Wall Street and telecommunications, and media came in fifth, well before banking, insurance, or retail. [More]
This Burger King Must Look Awesome To The Corporate Office
By June 2, 2009
If we worked in fast food, we’d want to work at this Burger King, because you don’t have to provide good service to score a perfect survey. You just have to give away food! Now take your free Whopper and get the hell out of here!
ResellerRatings Cracks Down On TheCellShop.net's Review Bribing
By May 6, 2008
The CEO of ResellerRatings, Scott Wainner, emailed us to say they’re busting TheCellShop for bribing customers to submit perfect reviews on his site. He wrote:
TheCellShop.net Caught Bribing Customers To Submit "Perfect" Reviews
By May 5, 2008
If you use resellerratings.com to check out companies before doing business with them, don’t take any perfect ratings for TheCellShop.net as legitimate. A reader forwarded us the following email that shows they bribe their customers to leave them perfect ratings in exchange for a $5 coupon.
By October 4, 2007
Don’t buy grades from your kids, cautions Kiplinger—it’s a slippery slope, and confuses the issue, which should be about achievement and investing in the future rather than turning eduction into a Rewards Program that will eventually run dry or lose its appeal. [Kiplinger]
Consumerist Ask Metafilter Round-Up
By August 8, 2006
• I was cited for CVC 21651(A)(1) in Aliso Viejo, CA. Please help me determine if I can beat this ticket. [Link]
Bribe Your Senator With An iPod!
By February 1, 2006
Upon being purchased an iPod by his daughter, Alaskan / octogenarian Senator Ted Stevens suddenly came around on the concept of fair use. So taking their cue from Senator Stevens’ conversion, iPaction.org has started a campaign to buy every senator who has a say in legislation affecting technology a brand new video iPod. The theory is that a brand-new iPod loaded with “public domain content, Creative Commons content, and audio messages about the importance of balanced copyright policy” is going to sway our lawmakers into a more lenient view of consumers’ media rights than the RIAA-propaganda they are currently being lobby-fed.
