NativeSon
wejo wrote:
The story of the year in Athletics no doubt was the arrest of former IAAF head Lamine Diack and allegations of accepting bribed in return for covering up doping tests.
The top two heads of Athletics Kenya has also stepped down after allegations they stole Nike sponsorship money and used it for personal uses.
Another thing that journalists (Sunday Times
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/11/the-sunday-times-reports-that-nikeathletics-kenya-briberytheft-allegations-are-now-part-of-a-criminal-probe/) have reported is that AK boss Isiah Kiplagat was paid an annual "honoraria fee" by Nike to be available for 24 hours a day for consulting, etc.
Now the line between paying someone for legitimate services, paying them so they will be influenced, and an outright bribe is thin.
It's why Seb Coe's personal contract with Nike was a huge conflict of interest. It's best for heads of non-profits to not have commercial side deals with private companies that do business with their non-profits.
Anyway, I'm interested in two things.
1) How one would determine if the Nike payments to the AK bosses are bribes. Obviously, if the "honoraria fee" was $500,000 I don't think it could be disputed.
2) This one is more important. If they were bribes, how would they be prosecutd in the US? One thing I've learned is that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act only applies to US companies bribing public government officials. So it covers Siemens bribing the Kenyan government to get a contract but not Nike bribing the Kenyan Athletics Federation (unless it is a government entity) to get a contract.
Now in the FIFA bribery scandals the same laws would apply yet the FIFA officials have been arrested and charged with crimes so I'd like someone with a legal mind to explain exactly how.
And why hasn't the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act been extended to non-profits and even foreign corporations and even domestic corporations?
I assume that LetsRun.com can't bribe some ad exec at some company to book a bunch of ads on LetsRun.com, but maybe that is legal and it is assumed a for-profit company (the one who buying the ads on LetsRun.com) would have the incentive to prevent this type of action?
Wejo,
ON a slightly different but related tangent, shouldn't the story of the year be the nailing of Sepp Blatter and his side kick, one Michelle Platini (FIFA & UEFA) as well as all thos e FIFa officials who've been arrested?
I understand that this is a running blog but that story dims the IAAF by a mile. No pun intended.
NOw, pertinent to your question, I think it's illegal for American corporations and even citizens to engage in any acts/form of corruption while in or outside the US. May be I didn't get your question.