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I'm pretty sure plenty of people wouldn't care. If someone offers you $100m for your business today (Ford), and a Russian company offered you $300m (Gazprom) --

I'm pretty sure plenty of people wouldn't care. If someone offers you $100m for your business today (Ford), and a Russian company offered you $300m (Gazprom) -- guess which one most would sell to? Facebook might not like it now, but at the time, you could be quite certain they didn't care.

killjoywashere 9y ago
Next question: do you think the Saudis got early access to the Paradise Papers too? Any chance the Saudi arrests are linked to all this? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-waleed-bin-talal.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/middleeast/saudi-ar...
pjc50 9y ago
I'm not up on the Magnitsky act, but does it make a difference if it's illegal for you to take the $300m from Gazprom?
- charlesdm 9y ago
  Only if you're an American. Afaik it doesn't apply to Europeans and others based outside of the US. Now, that said, if there are sanctions that cannot be avoided then obviously that would be a clear no. Assume companies without sanctions in this example.
  - killjoywashere 9y ago
    EU, Canada, and probably others now have an equivalent of the Magnitsky Act.
- ringaroundthetx 9y ago
  Well that’s when you set up a subsidiary in a third country which is not following US led sanctions. Aaaaaand we’ve come full circle. The root here is that money is fungible. The government has developed legislative tools to ATTEMPT to deter behavior it doesn’t like. Over the past 50 years it has attempted to leverage financial institutions to block the flow of payments based on a miscalculation of how much leverage the USA has over international finance. It requires widespread support over its claims to morality to maintain public support for these fictions and you are merely being exposed to the futility of that particular effort.

2 ms·

I'm pretty sure plenty of people wouldn't care. If someone offers you $100m for your business today (Ford), and a Russian company offered you $300m (Gazprom) --

by charlesdm 9y ago

killjoywashere 9y ago
Next question: do you think the Saudis got early access to the Paradise Papers too? Any chance the Saudi arrests are linked to all this? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-waleed-bin-talal.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/middleeast/saudi-ar...
pjc50 9y ago
I'm not up on the Magnitsky act, but does it make a difference if it's illegal for you to take the $300m from Gazprom?
- charlesdm 9y ago
  Only if you're an American. Afaik it doesn't apply to Europeans and others based outside of the US. Now, that said, if there are sanctions that cannot be avoided then obviously that would be a clear no. Assume companies without sanctions in this example.
  - killjoywashere 9y ago
    EU, Canada, and probably others now have an equivalent of the Magnitsky Act.
- ringaroundthetx 9y ago
  Well that’s when you set up a subsidiary in a third country which is not following US led sanctions. Aaaaaand we’ve come full circle. The root here is that money is fungible. The government has developed legislative tools to ATTEMPT to deter behavior it doesn’t like. Over the past 50 years it has attempted to leverage financial institutions to block the flow of payments based on a miscalculation of how much leverage the USA has over international finance. It requires widespread support over its claims to morality to maintain public support for these fictions and you are merely being exposed to the futility of that particular effort.