The obvious question
What would RoboCop do?
The CEO of a Detroit-area IT firm will be spending the next 12 months behind bars for bribery. Parimal Mehta was given the month prison term on Monday, along with a year of supervised release and a $10,000 fine. Earlier this year he pled guilty to one count of federal program bribery. While working as the CEO of FutureNet …
The US legal system is puzzling (well maybe) in its inconsistencies. While I applaud this type of action and the outcomes, a combination of a plea system that is open to misuse (especially if you are not extremely rich) and the 'inexplicable' excusing of many of its prominent citizens behaviour is bizarre. Law vs Justice (and justice comes a poor second).
"...will be spending the next 12 months behind bars for bribery.
Parimal Mehta was given the month prison term on Monday, along with a year of supervised release and a $10,000 fine".
How does 1 month prison and 1 year supervised release translate to "12 months behind bars"?
Also, $10k fine? As per the article, this guy was paying thousands of $ in bribes, presumably with the intent on getting a far higher rate of return. And if this was going on for many years (before 2013), then at least some of that projected 'ROI' must have already been realised. Given the context, $10k fine on it's own seems rather low, unless this was also accompanied by the city clawing back payments from any contracts they signed with the guy's firm.
My assumption was that resellers and IT services companies do this all the time...was this exposed because someone got sloppy?
I've worked in large IT organizations with a single-source mom and pop reseller handing all purchases. As in, you can't get a PO approved if it's not through this company. There has to be some sort of bribery, kickback scheme, whatever in place. Government IT positions must be far worse.
Seriously, isn't this just how the reseller business works?