Bribery (Commercial)
According to the commercial bribery act, a person is charged guilty when without the principal/employer’s consent and contrary to his best interests confers/agrees to offer upon agent/employee/fiduciary any benefit with the purpose of influencing the conduct of employee/fiduciary/agent in relation to the principal’s affairs. Agents/employees/fiduciaries are also guilty if they accept, solicit, or agree to accept benefits from another person on an understanding/agreement that such a benefit would influence conducts in relation to the principal’s affairs. One is also guilty if he holds himself out to the public as being engaged in the business of making a disinterested appraisal, selection, and criticism of services/goods and he accepts solicits or agrees to accept benefit to influence the appraisal, selection, or criticism (Davis, 1991).
US foreign trade practices/Prohibited
These statutes provide that its illegal for a company that files reports or for any director /officer/agent/employee etc of a company to make communication corruptly in whatever means, and ask for offers, payments/ gifts, etc in order to act in his official capacity or in order to influence action or omissions in violation of the lawful duty for him/her to secure benefits, and also influencing political officials by offering to grant payments, gifts, or promising anything favorable in order to make them make “suitable” decisions is unlawful according to US foreign trade policies.
Affirmative defenses
One can defend himself by proving that the payment, offer, gift, or promise of anything of value that was made, was legal under the written laws and legislations of the candidate’s, foreign official’s, party official’s, political party’s country, and that the gift, payment, offer, or promise that was made, was bona fide expenditure and reasonable like lodging expenses, travel, etc, incurred on behalf of a foreign party official, foreign individual, party or candidate and was directly related to demonstration, promotion or expansion of services/ products and also may be related to the execution of performance of a contract with foreign agency/government (Ladd, 1991).
Attorney General’s guidelines
The Attorney General should within 30 days after receiving the request, issue an opinion to respond to the request and should state whether the specified conducts violate preceding provisions and should assess completeness and accuracy and whether it was within the scope of conduct specified hence he should establish the required procedure.
Bribery internationally
Under U.S. legislation, it’s a criminal offense to engage in transnational bribery hence legal obligations imposed by Article eight of this act criminalizes the conduct by Geletex of exorbitantly paying salespeople for purposes of giving bribes to customers.
Bribery Sanctions-Penalties for criminals
This is imposed upon corporations/businesses who violate anti-bribery legislation and pay a fine of $2,000,000 while directors/officers/ employees etc pay a maximum of $100,000 and can be imprisoned up to 5 years (Luegenbiehl, 1983).
Civil proceedings
The Attorney General may bring a civil action as appropriate for a fine of a maximum of $10,000 against any corporation/firm as well as any director, officer, agent, employee, or stockholder who is acting on behalf of the company, who violates the anti-bribery provisions and additionally, in SEC enforcement action, the court may impose an additional fine, not more than the gross amount of pecuniary gain to the defendant as a result of the violation, or a specified dollar limitation based on the egregiousness of the violation, and normally range from $5,000 to $100,000 for natural people and $50,000 to $500,000 for corporations.
References
Davis, Michael. (1991) “Thinking like an Engineer: The Place of a Code of Ethics in the Practice of a Profession”. Philosophy and Public Affairs 20.2: 150-167.
Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard and Michael J. Rabins. (1995). Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Ladd, John. (1991) “The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics: An Intellectual and Moral Confusion”. Ethical Issues in Engineering. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 130-136.
Luegenbiehl, Heinz C. (1983) “Codes of Ethics and the Moral Education of Engineers“, Business and Professional Ethics: 41-61. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 137-154.