How's that work again...
SAP pay Govt bribe to make criminal charges for bribery go away?
SAP will pay nearly $3.9m after a senior executive was found to have bribed officials in the government of Panama to land lucrative deals. The software giant has agreed to pay $3.7m in profit plus an extra $188,896 in interest. SAP did so without admitting or denying the findings of the regulator that brought the bribery case …
"SAP pay Govt bribe to make criminal charges for bribery go away?"
Oh no no no no! Bribes are illegal. Laws were passed to make this a fine, and therefore legal.
If SAP had similarly *ahem* encouraged the Panama Government to make it legal to contribute "company sponsored investments" to local officials, no laws would have been broken in the first place.
But is was most likely cheaper/faster to do it this way. Costs of business and all that.