Dear FCPA Blog,
Just a quick note of congratulations on hitting the 10-year mark — quite a feat of endurance and undoubtedly one of the most influential journalism sites for business during this period.
I just watched the movie Gold (great film by the way) — it reminded me of the levels of corruption and fraud in the 90’s and early 2000’s which I think would have been left unchecked without the FCPA.
As for the FCPA Blog — I can’t think of any other news resource that has brought the message home to corporations so clearly and has certainly helped create the change in attitudes that has occurred.
Anyway congrats again for maintaining the FCPA Blog to the level of excellence that I think is truly unique.
Cheers
[Name Withheld]
4 Comments
FYI , the movie "Gold" was based on the story of Bre-X Minerals, which was the biggest stock market fraud in Canadian history. This stock was not listed on a junior venture exchange, it was listed on Canada's largest exchange. No one was ever charged criminally for this scam,only one person was charged with insider trading and found not guilty. While the U.S. had the F.C.P.A. Canada had the tax deductibility of bribes and kickbacks. This is still a "taboo" subject for anyone in politics,law,business or accounting, anyone else simply doesn't believe it. As any capitalist worth his salt will tell you "when you subsidize something you get more of it than you need or want" and tax expenditures are a subsidy. Congratulations to the team at FCPA Blog,and here's to wishing you continuing success while hoping for a time when you will have very little to report on or discuss.
Thanks for the reminder of Gold and the Bre-X Minerals scandal. We tend to forget that Canada has had its fair share of major corruption scandals: though I have no trouble recalling my first studied example – the Fantasy Gardens rort in BC… I must look that up again. 🙂
regards
HW
Brisbane, Australia
The detail is here: and what a story it is!
http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/bre-x-the-real-story-and-scandal-that-inspired-the-movie-gold
HW
HW: Thanks for the reminder about "Fantasy Gardens" as I recall it was agricultural land that the owners were able to get building permits for,then after it was covered with buildings and blacktop some bright light said " Hey this land is now covered with blacktop and buildings,you can't grow anything on it now, so let's change the zoning. "Right on" said the local government and with the stroke of a pen its value increased by Millions of Dollars. Then there was the paper bag with $20,000 in it that the then premier said was held "in trust". Like Bre-X some questions are left unanswered. At least the Australians,Americans,Poms and others are more open about these types of things, Canadians are not. Case in point, there has not been a single word in the Canadian media about the corruption stories in Malaysia (1MDB). Perhaps this is because the Trump Hotel in Vancouver is owned by Malaysians and the Canadian smoked salmon there is served with Russian potatoes. ( In room menu). All the best LS13
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