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Media reports that BAe is again having problems regarding supposed 'backhander' payments , and are being investigated by the Serious Fraud Dept !
I can't see that any good can be done by this, it's only outcome will future loss of export markets by the UK ., competeing arms marketeers will be excited .
I'm also convinced that 'backhanders' are the norm all over the world , and are just done 'quietly' !
Also the fact that the Uk has a 'Serious Fraud 'dept. has me wondering if there's another dept for "Non Serious ' fraud ?
Imagine the officers in their uniforms ,some with hats bearing the insignia " Serious Fraud Squad " others with "Non Serious Fraud Squad " !
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It's wonderful isn't it? BAE get a big contract probably against fierce foreign opposition, and our authorities try to penalise them. It's probably saved thousands of jobs. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!
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Fodder for the lawyers and the press !
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To do business with Arabs one has to grease palms, heavily. I first heard about it when I was at BAC, and it was common knowledge that a slush fund existed and that the Government of the day turned a blind eye to it.
It is still the same here in the US and many local politicians are being prosecuted right now, with a bunch of others already in prison, including the ex Governor, Edwin Edwards, known as 'Fast Eddie'.
John
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When I was working for Boeing, doing business in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Brunei, we had a real built-in headwind when competing with Airbus. We were specifically forbidden, by US laws, to offer any kind of "consultants' fees" or anything that could be interpreted as a bribe. Boeing's corporate lawyers were all over us like green on a pea to make sure we didn't do anything that could be considered a bribe. There were typically three extra people on the supposedly Sales and Engineering team from corporate legal staff to keep us on the straight and narrow.
We had one trump card. One of my colleagues was a typical Scandahooligan - 6'4', red hair, freckles, a Norwegian name. Unbeknown to the Bahrainis, he'd been brought up in Saudi Arabia when his dad was in the oil industry and he spoke fluent Arabic, even including some of the local dialects. That was our secret weapon. After five years of dealing with those guys, they never caught on.
Airbus played the "special treatment" crap all the time. They even let the chief pilot of the airline, who was on a technical team visit to Toulouse, "borrow" an A340, accompanied by several Airbus people, to go back on a personal visit when there was a death in his family!
We still outsold Airbus in most of the regions, but it was a real uphill battle. Definitely NOT a level playing field! To quote Stanley Holloway: "T' Normans had nowt in their favor, their chances of victory seem'd small, what wit' slope of t' field being against 'em and t' wind in their faces and all"
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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3 months ago at the botom of the South island they had a 7.3 but fortunately off-shore so didn't cause any loss of life-lots of structural damge to chimneys and walls though. Since then they have had over 50 sftershocks -only just yeasterday there was one. we are top of the south in Marlborough so didn't feel that one. A few years ago we ran a pub and we had quite a stong quake really shook the place and half our top shelf of spirits rattled and crashed to the fall. What a waste!!. Wouldn't like to have been in that Samoan or Indonesian ones though. But we are on the Pacific rim of fire and they always say there will be a big one here soon!!! Sandy
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I could hardly believe what I was reading in the morning paper- " Cayman Islands on the financial brink " !
Apparently being a Uk dependancy , the Cayman islands have secured a 38 million pound loan to help them out and another 177 million pound loan could be made available to them 'if they introduced taxes' on the island - ie income ,purchase , death duties, land transfer ,etc !
I have to wonder how UK taxpayers feel about helping out this tax haven ?
Some years ago on visit to George Town (the capital of the Cayman's ) I enquired at the island's branch of my bank about the requirements for opening an account there , one condition was that a minimum of $100,000 be deposited there !
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Chicago going out of the Olympics 2016 vote at the first hurdle. That's one in the eye for Obama after his personal plea.
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Jim, unfortunately my enquiry was just "out of general interest " !
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