Letter of Credit Forum

Uncle Sam wants you (r money) . Anyone remember the times when health care reform for 30 billion was too expensive ? Now that the TARP flood gates of 700 billion dollars are being opened (car manufacturers are on the list, porn industry wants some, anybody else out there ?) some US policy makers devise plans to fill the treasury coffers.  

In this context it may not come as a surprise that Siemens pays 1.6 billion dollars  to US and European regulators. The foreign corrupt practices act (FCPA) was invented by the peanut farmer and preacher Jimmy Carter who believed that US companies should be punished for bribery. Alas, the critics of the law repeatedly have said, that this is the way of doing business in many parts of the world. 

The fines that Siemens agreed to pay on the American side of the case — $450 million to the Justice Department and $350 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission — dwarf the previous high for a foreign corruption case brought by Washington. That mark of $33 million was set last year in the case of Baker Hughes, an oil conglomerate that paid a total of $44 million over foreign bribery charges. 

The NY Times reports further that Siemens, beginning in the mid-1990s, used bribes and kickbacks to foreign officials to secure government contracts for projects like a national identity card project in Argentina, mass transit work in Venezuela, a nationwide cellphone network in Bangladesh and a United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

To clarify: No US politician ever received money (ever heard of lobbying,  Siemens ?), but the US cashes in on foreign projects with no relation to its jurisdiction. If a company does business in Africa and has to "work with local communities", Uncle Sam gets his share of the bribe.

Finally: The bias of the United States against foreign companies is also evidenced by the fines imposed on foreign businesses for antitrust violations. Most of these violations have indirect influence on the American consumer. Microsoft is on place # 7, foreign companies occupy the first 6 spots in regards to the amount of fines levied against them. The list was thorougly researched by a major US law firm which unfortunately did not want to make it available to me.