Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Bribery, but Nobody Was Charged

When a manager in a Mexican livestock operation owned by Tyson Foods uncovered payments to the wives of staff veterinarians tasked with ensuring the safety of food processing there, executives decided to pay the vets directly through honorariums so that they would continue to overlook regulatory abuses at the plant. These payments represented bribery and the practice put public health at risk, but when the company finally came clean they only paid a fine and no prosecutions resulted. A new writer for the NYT, James B. Stewart, author of Den Of Thieves, does an excellent job of running down clues and clarifying issues of effective enforcement of corruption laws, pointing out the value of prosecution of executives as a deterrent, in his very first article for the paper.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/business/25stewart.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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