I know what you mean, but what else can you do other than levy a fine? It looks like from the article that the problem was with subsidiaries in other countries creating slush funds and IBM simply did not have controls in place to prevent that. I don't know if you could convict any US employee of the actual bribes or even for looking the other way. Some of them might have known about it, but good luck proving that. They could prove the company was liable, but they can't throw anyone in jail for it. They could prove IBM did not have sufficient controls, but they couldn't prove that the reason wasn't that their accounting group just plain sucked. Last I checked you can be fired, but it is much, much harder to convict someone for being bad at their job.

Haw?

Why is it then that U.S. tax dollars are going to buying homosexual child sex slaves for Afghan warlords [pbs.org] in exchange for getting local police to do their jobs?

You do not have/need a joe fatpockets, what you need is a willingness to have agents whose accounts you do not review..., and that is much harder to prosecute, and moreover many american would not like to loose the salary that the cash obtained this way brings in..

so of course it is "nice" to have the fantasy of punishing the bad CEO's, but changing the way you consume is a more efficient step..

Does SEC, or anyone in the U.S. for that matter, have jurisdiction over supposedly illegal acts outside of the country? Is it even SEC's business that officials abroad were bribed? Shouldn't the Chinese slap them with, say, imprisonment of responsible persons?

Dissolve companies that are caught doing these things; force receivership and sell off the assets. The executives involved would be jailed, and 95% of the workers would continue wherever their particular business ended up.