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WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency, agreed to pay more than $19 million to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission over allegations that it paid bribes to government officials in India and took part in “illicit schemes” in China, Peru and Brazil.
The Financial Times reported that the company is accused of illegally funding the political campaign of the mayor of Peru and spending up to $1 million in bribes to Indian officials. The company neither admitted nor denied the charges, according to the report.
“A company cannot allow a focus on profitability or market share to come at the expense of appropriate controls,” Charles Cain, the head of the SEC enforcement unit, said, according to Bloomberg.
The company said it now has robust “new compliance measures and controls, fundamentally changed its approach to acquisitions, cooperated fully with the Commission and terminated those involved in misconduct.”
The FCAP blog reported that the company made about $5 million in profit on the $1 million in bribes in India from 2015 to 2017. The report said half of the company’s revenue from India at the time was from the Indian States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh’s Departments of Information and Public Relations.
The blog reported that in China, the company avoided paying $3.2 million in taxes by “making $107,000 in payments to a vendor identified by tax officials, and providing $2,000 worth of gifts and entertainment to tax officials.”
The SEC found that the company, which is based in the U.K., failed to ensure that subsidiaries implemented its internal accounting controls and compliance policies, Reuters reported.
TREND FORECAST: Once again, when the “Bigs” break the law they get a slap on the wrist and no one goes to jail. But when we the little people of Slavelandia break the law, it is punishment to the full extent of the law.
And as we have been long reporting, across the business spectrum, the Bigs are getting bigger and small businesses, which have now been “officially” deemed “nonessential,” are going out of business.
Take a trip to any town and see the takeover. From Dollar General, to Home Depot, from Staples to Starbucks, the “Bigs” have wiped out the Mom and Pops. Thus, the concentration of wealth at the top will increase while the middle-class in what used to be “The Land of Opportunity,” will diminish.
And, the “Bigs” will continue to get a free “Get out of Jail” pass for crimes they commit while the smalls will be pushed down to more servitude and harshly punished for any laws they break.
As more freedoms erode for the masses, new anti-establishment “Off With Their Heads” movements will accelerate.