Bad: getting laid off. Worse: getting laid off because your company had to pay huge fines because it got caught paying bribes. Here is the Fierce Markets Network with the details:
It has been a tough few days for medical device manufacturer Smith & Nephew ($SNN) and particularly for its Memphis, TN-based division.But of course, none of the corporate managers who either made the decisions to pay the bribes or looked the other way while it was happening will lose their jobs. Because accountability is only something that applies to peons, who suffer even if they had nothing to do with the original crime.
The company announced Monday that it would pay the U.S. $22.2 million in fines and profit disgorgement to settle claims that it won business in Greece by bribing doctors in that country's public health service. Its U.S. subsidiary, Smith & Nephew Inc., based in Memphis, is shouldering $16.8 million of the settlement with the Justice Department.
The settlement came days after the company announced that it would cut about 800 jobs from its orthopedics unit and place emphasis on emerging markets and research and development.
The bribery charges date to 2007 when an investigation found that the company, with the help of a distributor, paid $9 million in bribes to Greek doctors. The company agreed to maintain an enhanced compliance program to be reviewed by an outside monitor for 18 months.
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