Asia Pac, International - Written by on Wednesday, October 2, 2013 0:01 - 0 Comments

BT Friends and Family is bribery says Beijing Prosecutor

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chinese Police carNo.

We don’t mean the popular British Telecom telephone call tariff, we mean Chinese Bribery Typology – friends & family.

Bribery (news) is all the rage in China these days.

Citing local prosecutors the Beijing Youth Daily, the Official Paper of the Youth League in Beijing reports a common way of bribe recipients avoiding having to meet the bribe payer in person to collect, is simply arrange for the bribe to be received on his/her behalf by another, typically friends and family.

Once the friend/brother/sister/auntie/uncle/husband/wife/etc. [delete as appropriate] has received the reddies they then give the cash to the person or wire it to corporate or private bank accounts.

Want China News reports that these intermediaries may not just be ciphers for the receipt of the bribe but may also act as an agent for the bribe receiver proactively seeking out ‘opportunities’ by offering to sell influence of their friend the state official or employee.

In another scam Want China News reported that Prosecutors from Beijing’s Xicheng district academics and experts (often on review panels for government tenders) also ‘work’ as agents to channel bribes. In return bidders expect recieve insider information about the bid and receive ‘support’ for theirs.

With the recent passing of the Autumn festival and the traditional gifting of mooncakes (about which more anon) the public outcry over bribery in China continues to build momentum.

If your business operates in or has dealings with China the question you need to be asking yourself is, have you taken steps to do the best you can to avoid channelling payments to friends and family of influential employees of customers in China…

Well. Have you?

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