4 ms·

Agreed. What an awful situation to find yourself in. With the law enforcement demanding an exchange. You have to gamble one way or the other. Either you report

Agreed. What an awful situation to find yourself in. With the law enforcement demanding an exchange. You have to gamble one way or the other. Either you report the bribery attempt to the DA's office, and suffer the retaliation that ensues from snitching on the DA's friends; or you go along with the bribe and suffer the prosecution from the DA. How do you know which one to choose? Are you sure the DA will side with you if you blow the whistle? Will you or your employer suffer retaliation from the county law enforcement you just outed? Maybe you're blacklisted from future security gigs by being known as someone who rats on cops. Whenever government officials solicit bribes from private citizens, the enormous power asymmetry there should lead us to prosecuting just the government official(s). Of course it's not always this simple. Sometimes the private citizen wields more power than the civil servant they're bribing. In other words, the Mafia or other organized crime. But I'm not ready to put Apple in that column yet.

microtherion 6y ago
> How do you know which one to choose? In Apple's case, you could refer back to Apple's business conduct training program, a self directed online class which ALL of us are REQUIRED to pass ANNUALLY, and which states in no uncertain terms that NOTHING of value may be paid to a government official without prior approval from higher up, and describes precisely such "facilitation fees". And if the article is to be believed, the Apple officer in question was in charge of CREATING that class. I'm sorry; I don't think I've ever met them, but I don't see how this could possibly be excused, unless Apple Legal signed off on that bribe (stranger things have happened — Apple's then General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team — but still find that exceedingly unlikely).
- mmastrac 6y ago
  > Apple's then General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team I forgot about this - the Apple options backdating scandal: https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-70.htm https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-70.htm
- ksec 6y ago
  >General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team More on that Story?
  - vlovich123 6y ago
    Apple options backdating. If you search for that you should find lots of info.
  - microtherion 6y ago
    https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20683.htm https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20683.htm I actually met Heinen on my first day at work — back then, Apple was small enough that it was customary for a member of the executive team to drop in to new employee orientation each Monday.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Yeah. The training I've taken has been in the context of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act but it's made clear that even if certain practices are considered business as usual in some places, they're absolutely off-limits. Even if this was ostensibly in the context of what they believed was needed to do their job, Apple (properly) does not have their back--and hopefully did not encourage this in any way.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  > the Apple officer in question was in charge of CREATING that class You're kidding me? You actually believe the upper management follows this shit? It's a checkbox to make sure you have a "good working environment. You know how I know that it's some BS? Two of the Chief X Officers at a previous job both met their current partners at a job... they were pregnant at their weddings.
pmoriarty 6y ago
"Either you report the bribery attempt to the DA's office, and suffer the retaliation that ensues from snitching on the DA's friends; or you go along with the bribe and suffer the prosecution from the DA." This is why you go directly to the FBI.

microtherion 6y ago

> How do you know which one to choose? In Apple's case, you could refer back to Apple's business conduct training program, a self directed online class which ALL of us are REQUIRED to pass ANNUALLY, and which states in no uncertain terms that NOTHING of value may be paid to a government official without prior approval from higher up, and describes precisely such "facilitation fees". And if the article is to be believed, the Apple officer in question was in charge of CREATING that class. I'm sorry; I don't think I've ever met them, but I don't see how this could possibly be excused, unless Apple Legal signed off on that bribe (stranger things have happened — Apple's then General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team — but still find that exceedingly unlikely).

mmastrac 6y ago
> Apple's then General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team I forgot about this - the Apple options backdating scandal: https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-70.htm https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-70.htm
ksec 6y ago
>General Counsel once created a backdated paper trail for a fictitious meeting of the executive team More on that Story?
- vlovich123 6y ago
  Apple options backdating. If you search for that you should find lots of info.
- microtherion 6y ago
  https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20683.htm https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20683.htm I actually met Heinen on my first day at work — back then, Apple was small enough that it was customary for a member of the executive team to drop in to new employee orientation each Monday.
ghaff 6y ago
Yeah. The training I've taken has been in the context of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act but it's made clear that even if certain practices are considered business as usual in some places, they're absolutely off-limits. Even if this was ostensibly in the context of what they believed was needed to do their job, Apple (properly) does not have their back--and hopefully did not encourage this in any way.
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
> the Apple officer in question was in charge of CREATING that class You're kidding me? You actually believe the upper management follows this shit? It's a checkbox to make sure you have a "good working environment. You know how I know that it's some BS? Two of the Chief X Officers at a previous job both met their current partners at a job... they were pregnant at their weddings.

pmoriarty 6y ago

"Either you report the bribery attempt to the DA's office, and suffer the retaliation that ensues from snitching on the DA's friends; or you go along with the bribe and suffer the prosecution from the DA." This is why you go directly to the FBI.