Critical Thinking Questions

1. Were the various payments the director made legal?
2. A foreign firm just listed on the US stock exchange hired you to help with logistics. Outside the US, its standard practice has been to pay government officials a retainer to sign legal documents that they would not routinely process. Its headquarters abroad can claim these retainers as business expenses. Law firms abroad handle the payment of the retainers that are billed to your firm as legal fees. Your foreign boss working in the US ordered you to follow the established practice abroad and pay the retainers. What should you do?
3. The district attorney focuses on what she perceives as corrupt business practices. You believe you understand the difference between a facilitation payment and a bribe. The payment you are about to make would be a bribe if it were paid to an official, but you are paying it to a business associate from a private firm for a service that would clearly be a bribe had you paid it to an official. Should you pay?
4. The last audit of your firms foreign subsidiaries resulted in a finding that some of the payments abroad were bribes. US officials have not charged you. What should you do?

Answer questions in bold.