| |||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)Posted Jul 4, 2009 15:52 UTC (Sat) by dwheeler (guest, #1216)Parent article: Tiemann: Open Source Incentives I hope that this story about the B&MG Foundation is untrue; certainly people should track down the claim. I suspect the claimed actions would be illegal under the the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). According to Wikipedia,the FCPA makes it unlawful for a U.S. person "to make a payment to a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person... The meaning of foreign official is broad... Doctors at government-owned or managed hospitals are also considered to be foreign officials under the FCPA, as is anyone working for a government-owned or managed institution or enterprise... The government focuses on the intent of the bribery rather than on the amount."
(Log in to post comments)
You misunderstand... Posted Jul 4, 2009 18:09 UTC (Sat) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] You certainly can not give any official money. But you can add stipulations to your gift if you are charity! And if these stipulations help your company... why it's a big deal? Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation always worked this way - I don't see anything surprising there... Basically consider this "charity" part of PR department of Microsoft and all will be good.
You misunderstand... Posted Jul 5, 2009 1:15 UTC (Sun) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]
Maybe you misunderstand. The FCPA makes providing "gifts" to foreign governments for the purpose of securing sales illegal. It also makes putting conditions on gifts illegal if those conditions require the purchase or use of US products. The FCPA was passed to stop the commercial interference in foreign governments that caused endless problems for US foreign policy and harmed people.
You misunderstand... Posted Jul 5, 2009 2:03 UTC (Sun) by johill (subscriber, #25196) [Link] Actually, are you sure? The actual text of the FCPA seems to imply that the "gift" needs to go to a foreign official, a foreign political party or party official, or any candidate for foreign political office (from the lay-person's guide, cf. ยง78dd-2(a)(1,2,3)) which would not seem to conver "gifts" to the entire country's schooling system or whatever.
You misunderstand... Posted Jul 5, 2009 18:28 UTC (Sun) by shmget (subscriber, #58347) [Link]
"Basically consider this "charity" part of PR department of Microsoft and all will be good."
Then that 'charity' should not be tax-exempt.
|
|
||||||||||||