Wal-Mart has been accused of bribing Mexican officials so that it could open stores South of the Border, but don’t think it is alone on this one. From the looks of it, business schools might want to add Bribery 101 as an elective.

Fortune reports that Deere, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcom, Las Vegas Sands, Koch Industries, and plenty of others “are also under investigation for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” Just this week, two big companies got caught when the SEC charged a former Morgan Stanley exec “with bribing an official of a state-owned Chinese company in order to win business for the investment firm.” Plus, News Corp. gave the word that it’s being investigated for bribery as part of its whole phone-hacking fiasco.

Indeed, according to Fortune, “at least 81 public companies under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Justice for running afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes bribery in foreign countries punishable in the U.S.”Continue reading...

Like any massive corporation that has a lot of dough and a lot of interests, Coca-Cola has tangled itself in plenty of politics, though your average soda drinker couldn’t likely care less. However, there are some that do and Coke doesn’t want to lose their dollars.

That may be why the company has ditched out of the conservative lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that denies the existence of climate change, helped author a law in Florida that some believe helped cause the Trayvon Martin situation to arise, and is pushing for voter ID registration (which critics deem a form of voter suppression), according to TriplePundit.com.Continue reading...

Since the 2008 election, Koch brothers David and Charles have taken an unabashed, high-profile role as the catalysts behind anti-Obama tea-party activism and movements. From funding small-government tea party seed groups like Americans for Prosperity to paying heavily for top lobbyists to loosen regulation on their Koch Industries oil and paper interests, their efforts have made "Koch" an almost household name.

Until now, the Kochs seemed to care little about the hostility they had aroused from the other side of the political spectrum. But recent online registrations prove that, behind the scenes, there are PR efforts afoot to protect the Koch brand.

Progressive activist group One Wisconsin Now points out that, last week, "Koch Industries registered at least three anti-Koch domains: StopKoch.com, StopKochIndustries.com, and AntiKoch.com."Continue reading...

The protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's proposed budget bill continue into day 17 in Madison. But now anger has shifted from politicians to include the billionaire Koch brothers, who many see as the patrons (and architects) of Walker's proposals. Much of the Koch empire consists of oil interests, but it also manufactures retail paper products (in part through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific in Wisconsin).

Now protesters are calling for a boycott of Koch Industries products. But in the confusion of identifying those linked to financing Walker, activists are mistakenly calling for the boycott of at least one brand name that really had nothing to do with the governor's campaign.Continue reading...