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Plenty of multinationals play "dirty" in Latin America, I've heard similar stories about several other companies here from people that work for smaller, local c
by hannibalhorn 14y ago
Plenty of multinationals play "dirty" in Latin America, I've heard similar stories about several other companies here from people that work for smaller, local competitors.
That said, I highly doubt that it's a policy of the home office, it's really just the end result of hiring people who get results in the region, in a situation where oversight is difficult to impossible.
- alecco 14y agoWillful ignorance.
- nookie 14y agoDo you really want to know how sausages are made? :)
- pavel_lishin 14y agoIf I'm running a multi-million dollar SausageCo, Inc., then yes, I would very much like to know how the sausages I'm responsible for are made.
- angersock 14y agoAt the multi-billion dollar mark, though, it doesn't really matter that much now does it? :(
- jakejake 14y agoTrue, you would want to keep an eye on your product. But you may not really get into the details of your sales team's methods. Especially a rep who seems to have a gift of stealing away customers from your competitor. That's what you pay them to do, after all - get those contracts. As long as there's no major negative attention drawn I'm sure it would be quite easy for VISA to ignore.
- DanBC 14y ago> in a situation where oversight is difficult to impossible. That excuse no longer washes.
- hannibalhorn 14y agoIn an ideal world, yes, but I reside in a very similar country, and have seen and heard too many similar stories to be naive. I think the best thing that can be done is to blog about it like this; someone in Visa corporate will take notice and changes will be made, hopefully for the better.
- DanBC 14y agoVisa is a multi-billion dollar international company with strict regulatory controls. For them to say that "preventing some of our employees from breaking the law is hard" is not good enough. I accept that no organisation is going to achieve total legal compliance. But sometimes it feels as if some companies feel above the law; as if they are untouchable. As if, indeed, they are too big to fail.
- dlikhten 14y ago"too big to fail" I wonder if facebook fails, will that be a good thing where a lot of developers get on the market thus allowing startups to hire :P?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- nico 14y agoThat is just an excuse. If big companies really care, they can make it happen. For example I know several people who work at Walmart in Chile, and they've told me about the very strict rules the company has for negotiating contracts and dealing with vendors, breaking those rules is considered a very serious issue and usually ends on the person who broke those rules getting fired.
- j_s 14y ago
- eugenes 14y agoI believe you've misspelled "plausible deniability" over two whole sentences.
- brown9-2 14y agoLet's say you were a US-based multinational that wanted to expand your market share overseas, at any means necessary, even if it means using tactics that would be frowned upon or illegal in the US. Isn't the "this was an unauthorized move by a subcontractor" the exact defense you would plan to use then when the dirty tactics were exposed?
- j_s 14y agoUnfortunately, it works.
- nikcub 14y agonot anymore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act
- j_s 14y ago"this was an unauthorized move by a subcontractor" works. Ask airbnb, etc.
- nikcub 14y agoahh yes, if you are reading this thread please go down and then back up here.
- j_s 14y agoAlso, NoPiece pointed out in this discussion that the FCPA probably applies only to goverment officials: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4397414 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4397414 (Is this what you were referencing in saying 'go down and then back up'? not sure what you were getting at there, sorry...)
- brown9-2 14y agoI'm not sure if it's a closed case quite yet. A few months ago the NY Times unearthed that Walmart's Mexico subsidiary was responsible for bribing lots of government officials, and that the home office in the US covered it up and promoted the people in charge. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-me... The case is still pending, AFAIK, but the law itself doesn't make the practice non-existent.
- BillSaysThis 14y agoHow many months ago was it that Wal-Mart got caught up in a similar scandal in Mexico?
- j_s 14y agoVast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-me... (paywalls, etc.) By DAVID BARSTOW Published: April 21, 2012 > MEXICO CITY — In September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received > an alarming e-mail from a former executive at the company’s largest > foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico. In the e-mail and follow-up > conversations, the former executive described how Wal-Mart de Mexico > had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance.
- protomyth 14y agoDo a search on Chiquita Banana and murder to get some truly horrific actions by companies in Latin America. I'm a little skeptical that the home offices are ignorant.
- slurgfest 14y agoNot sure what Chiquita has to do with foreign companies getting used to locally common forms of corruption.
- protomyth 14y agoTheir corporate headquarters is in Cincinnati, OH and they have gone beyond the local standards corruption in a couple of widely reported ways.
- slurgfest 14y agoI never said or implied that Chiquita was engaged in local forms of corruption. I asked what Chiquita has to do with OTHER companies engaged in local forms of corruption. Please don't be so dishonest as to continue assigning me claims I did not make.
- protomyth 14y agoTruthfully, I really missed the boat on what you meant then. I was adding another example of companies from the USA that have had less than stellar dealing with Latin America. I WAS implying that Chiquita did the same crud only larger.