Plantronics Reaches $36 Million Settlement with SEC

[cageymaru]

Plantronics has agreed to a $36 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) involving its new $2 billion acquisition; Polycom. From 2006 until 2014, corrupt Polycom China executives provided significant discounts to Polycom's distributors and/or resellers, while knowing these discounts would be paid to Chinese government agencies and government-owned enterprises. These bribes were made to buy assistance from those officials to obtain more orders for Polycom products.

These illegal bribes were documented in a parallel deal-tracking and email system in China, and outside of Polycom's company-approved system. The Chinese executives instructed the sales personnel to not use their Polycom email addresses to hide the transactions. Polycom made no attempt to create an anti-corruption system or implement internal accounting controls in regards to its Chinese operations. The SEC concluded that Polycom China made the company an additional $10.7 million in revenue. In addition, Polycom reported its CEO's personal expenses as company expenses.

The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") also made public a letter of declination closing its investigation into Polycom citing among other things Polycom's voluntary disclosure and full cooperation. Polycom is neither admitting nor denying the SEC's allegations. As part of resolving these matters, a payment of $36 million will come from an escrow secured by Plantronics as part of its acquisition of Polycom.

 

[viscountalpha]

This boils down to
"oh we caught you cheating, pay a fine and move along. " This doesn't feel like justice to me.

 

[Snowdensjacket]

This boils down to
"oh we caught you cheating, pay a fine and move along. " This doesn't feel like justice to me.

Justice is sending a poor person to jail for stealing a few hundred dollars of things, and then doing nothing to a rich person who steals millions. Well I mean the company does have to pay a big fine, so they have less money to pay their poor employees or lower prices. That's Justice with a capital J.

 

[Spidey329]

The SEC concluded that Polycom China made the company an additional $10.7 million in revenue. I

And a $36mil fine, that's a good penalty ratio. The risk should always outweigh the reward when it comes to penalty fines. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't, so it doesn't act as a proper deterrent for executives.

 

[Snowdensjacket]

And a $36mil fine, that's a good penalty ratio. The risk should always outweigh the reward when it comes to penalty fines. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't, so it doesn't act as a proper deterrent for executives.

The executives don't pay the fine the company does. There is no deterrent for the executives.

 

[Sufu]

Plantronics has agreed to a $36 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) involving its new $2 billion acquisition; Polycom. From 2006 until 2014, corrupt Polycom China executives provided significant discounts to Polycom's distributors and/or resellers, while knowing these discounts would be paid to Chinese government agencies and government-owned enterprises. These bribes were made to buy assistance from those officials to obtain more orders for Polycom products.

These illegal bribes were documented in a parallel deal-tracking and email system in China, and outside of Polycom's company-approved system. The Chinese executives instructed the sales personnel to not use their Polycom email addresses to hide the transactions. Polycom made no attempt to create an anti-corruption system or implement internal accounting controls in regards to its Chinese operations. The SEC concluded that Polycom China made the company an additional $10.7 million in revenue. In addition, Polycom reported its CEO's personal expenses as company expenses.

The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") also made public a letter of declination closing its investigation into Polycom citing among other things Polycom's voluntary disclosure and full cooperation. Polycom is neither admitting nor denying the SEC's allegations. As part of resolving these matters, a payment of $36 million will come from an escrow secured by Plantronics as part of its acquisition of Polycom.

I used to work at Polycom during that timeframe. The CEO actually got fired because he would take people out to fancy restaurants and then expense it as a company expense. it was all very hush hush when they canned him. The sucky part is that HR became Nazis with regard to company expenses after that and required receipts for EVERYTHING. Huge PIA when you travel for work for a living.

 

[Fifliffl]

The executives don't pay the fine the company does. There is no deterrent for the executives.

Well, the new company that just bought them does in this case

 

[theBrownLlama]

ha!!!! it's just a small fine. LOL
but you go to jail for 6 months for stealing a can of beer

absolutely retarded politicians and judges.

 

[Uvaman2]

Its a fine, AND, no admission of guilt, awesome!

 

[RAutrey]

So where did the $36 million go?

 

[harbingerofdoom]

polycom is loosing ground in the us and its partially (admittedly a very very small part) because of this. I have way more people going yealink than polycom these days.