IBM settles with SEC, pays $10 million for accusations of bribery

Hey, look, it's a major international corporation getting in trouble for bribery, and it isn't Samsung! This time it's home grown Big Blue, choosing to settle with SEC over allegations that its employees have spent the last 15 years or so illegally bribing and wooing foreign officials to score themselves bigger contracts. This includes $207,000 in cash bribes paid to South Korean representatives between 1998 and 2003 plus more in the form of gifts and trips to those willing and able to sign over big contracts, even paying for the personal vacations of Chinese officials. Ultimately $10 million is little more than a slap on the wrist for a company the size of IBM, which has not admitted fault and now will never have to, but we were glad to see that Watson has not been implicated in any of these nefarious misdeeds. His record remains squeaky clean.