At Least 10 Amazon Employees Took Bribes from Sellers, Indictment Alleges (cbsnews.com) 14
CBS News reports:
Six people allegedly conspired to bribe Amazon employees and contractors in order to gain a competitive advantage on the retailer's marketplace, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, those charged posed as consultants and worked with third-party sellers whose products had previously been removed from Amazon Marketplace get the items back on the platform. The six then paid a total of more than $100,000 in bribes to least 10 Amazon employees in exchange for their restoring the banned products or services, the indictment alleges. The products included household goods, consumer electronics and dietary supplements, prosecutors said.
"The ultimate victim from this criminal conduct is the buying public, who get inferior or even dangerous goods that should have been removed from the marketplace," U.S. Attorney Brian Moran said in a statement. "As the world moves increasingly to online commerce, we must ensure that the marketplace is not corrupted with unfair advantages obtained by bribes and kickbacks...."
The six accused face up to five years in prison for commercial bribery and up to 20 years for wire fraud.
One of the six actually worked for Amazon at the beginning of the scheme, according to the article, which notes that their tactics included temporarily suspending the accounts of competitors.
One FBI agent in Seattle tells CBS, "What's equally concerning is that, not only did they attempt to increase sales of their own products, but they sought to damage and discredit their competitors."
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, those charged posed as consultants and worked with third-party sellers whose products had previously been removed from Amazon Marketplace get the items back on the platform. The six then paid a total of more than $100,000 in bribes to least 10 Amazon employees in exchange for their restoring the banned products or services, the indictment alleges. The products included household goods, consumer electronics and dietary supplements, prosecutors said.
"The ultimate victim from this criminal conduct is the buying public, who get inferior or even dangerous goods that should have been removed from the marketplace," U.S. Attorney Brian Moran said in a statement. "As the world moves increasingly to online commerce, we must ensure that the marketplace is not corrupted with unfair advantages obtained by bribes and kickbacks...."
The six accused face up to five years in prison for commercial bribery and up to 20 years for wire fraud.
One of the six actually worked for Amazon at the beginning of the scheme, according to the article, which notes that their tactics included temporarily suspending the accounts of competitors.
One FBI agent in Seattle tells CBS, "What's equally concerning is that, not only did they attempt to increase sales of their own products, but they sought to damage and discredit their competitors."
stifle the competition (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]
You can buy politicians for $1000. $1M isn't necessary.
Typical Amazon (Score:3)
Deceive and manipulate individuals for cash under the table - go to jail. Deceive and manipulate the public at large - become the world's richest person.
Please dog whistle a little more clearly (Score:3)
Actually, all but one were in the US. (Or by âoeAmericanâ, did you mean âoewhiteâ?) Anyhoo, lest we get the wrong idea, what conclusions do you draw or feel could reasonably be drawn from that observation?
Oh I think it was pretty clear (Score:5, Insightful)
He was clearly implying that Americans are less likely to engage to bribery, corruption, and underhanded dealing than people from other countries. Which as anyone familiar with American business or politics will know, is total bullshit.
Re:Oh I think it was pretty clear (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure where you got your data, since you didn't, you know, actually cite any but the US is towards the lower end of bribery even amongst 'first-world' countries.
Here's an aggregate listing of 'Western' nations by bribery-victim rates [nationmaster.com] - notice the US is almost at the bottom, with 0.2% of the population reporting have paid or been asked for a bribe. That's half the rate of Canada (0.4%)! Far lower than, say, France at 1.3%.
Maybe you prefer the OECD's Anti-corruption [oecd.org] reports? You can follow that link to read them yourself! Where's the US? Towards the bottom, again.
If you don't like those, you can go to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer [transparency.org] and discover that, again, the US is almost at the bottom of the list - 23rd lowest out of 180.
Of course, the funny thing is that the US is perceived as more corrupt that some countries, but when crime-victimization surveys are performed, the US has an actual bribery rate below its perceived rate, but other 'top ranking' countries score higher than popular expectations. Japan, for example...
Re: (Score:2)
Business as usual (Score:1)