RE: Class Action31 Oct 2021 10:25
".......they were only found guilty of not preventing it." Quite so much as the bean counters at SFO tried their damnedest to dredge up more dirt on the company but despite their best efforts could only drum up 75 million bucks for the exchequer
I stand by what I said last year which is that collusion between senior Execs. in a large corporation can run rings round all but the soundest set of internal controls. SFO states:-
"A key feature of the case was the complex and deliberately opaque methods used by these senior executives to pay agents across borders, disguising payments through sub-contractors, creating fake contracts for fictitious services and, in some cases, passing bribes through more than one agent and one country, to disguise their actions."
I submit that even the most hawk-eyed internal auditor would not have unravelled such a web of deceit.
In my working life I had to investigate, amongst other things, a fraud involving a mere $2.5million which, due to its pure simplicity and the pulling of rank by a senior official had gone unnoticed by both internal and external auditors.
So let us remember "....guilty of not preventing it" only, but internal controls now strengthened to prevent a recurrence and hope that prospective clients take the same view.
Whether you believe the company or not is up to you.