HP Pays MILLIONS To Settle School Bribery Charges

Ars Technica:

Hewlett Packard has agreed to fork over $16.25 million to settle charges that the computer maker "lavished" gifts on two Texas school districts in order to win government contracts to provide computer equipment.

Read the whole story: Ars Technica

Comments

[blood1]

07:29 PM on 11/12/2010

This clearly defines what "TX: Open for Business" means. But shhhhh, Slick Rick is on a book tour and can't be bothered with such trivial things as crime!

The 5 year old denial / whine: I didn't do it, and I promise to never do it again....priceless!

[Max Shaw]

03:48 PM on 11/12/2010

HP: 'Lets Do Amazing...ly stupid things with our money in order to monopolize government tech contracts and then pay out the back end for it to put this all behind us.'

[Aardvaark]

05:57 AM on 11/12/2010

Who was in charge of HP when this took place?

[foxisms]

01:46 AM on 11/12/2010

Isn't this exactly like paying a bribe to get yourself off the hook for bribing somebody else?

[foxisms]

01:53 AM on 11/12/2010

You can call it a penalty or a settlement.
I call it a built in cost factor.

[thebigbike]

08:40 PM on 11/11/2010

It would not be too great a stretch to note a reasonable connection to the cultural changes in HP, from the original "HP Way" to the methods and corporate culture of company led and transmogrified by Carly Fiorina.

[banker67]

07:57 PM on 11/11/2010

So, legalisms notwithstanding, it certainly looks like HP employees committed a crime by bribing school officials. But because HP is a powerful and very rich corporation, the courts say no one committed a crime at all. See how simple the law really is in our country?
Instead, the company merely pays a fee ( not a fine because that might imply guilt) to have prosecutors drop all charges. They call it 'no contest' or something like that, but the plain fact is that real people working for HP obviously acted under clear corporate direction: The corporation paid for the bribes, not the employees from their personal accounts.
If giving and receiving bribes to win a contract is a crime, then real people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
When prosecutors and judges bury their heads in the sand -- for the millionth time -- we have no rule of law. When officials can just decide to let the criminals go because the criminals have big political connections or mountains of money, those are corrupt officials and we have no law except bribery and favoritism.
If that's all Americans want from the officials paid well with tax dollars, so be it.
Me, I'd like to see a higher standard from all those lifers who suck down tax dollars from cradle to grave, and cynically refuse to do the job they have sworn to do.
And yes, I like it here on planet Wamaroonie. Thanks for asking.

[murphy80]

07:41 PM on 11/11/2010

please put at least on HP croook in jail for this.

a money fine means nothing to a corp that avoids taxes.