The Naked Face of Globalisation
One of the world's largest Multi-national Corporations has been caught making profits at the expense of underprivileged children by engaging in corrupt behaviour.
NEC-Business Network Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of NEC America Inc., has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total $20.6 million criminal fine, civil settlement and restitution today relating to charges of collusion and wire fraud in the E-Rate program. This program was created by the US Congress to "provide funding for needy schools and libraries to connect to and use the Internet".
NEC was charged with corruptly allocating contracts, rigging and/or inflating bids, as well as agreeing to submit false and fraudulent documents to hide the supply of "ineligible items", the donation of "free" items that it later billed to E-Rate, and generally to defeat inquiry into the legitimacy of funding requests.
NEC America's web site at the present time makes no comment on the case at all. The "ethics" of American corporations are looking as respectable as the country's commitment to human rights.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 4:15 pm ::
