Is there even a way for Google to invest in a high-corruption country like India without paying bribes (which would break US anti-bribery laws)? I'm pretty sure such an investment would be impossible in e.g. Russia, where many a hand needs to be greased before anything can happen.
Yes. In fact I suspect they haven't paid bribes because the US will arrest their CEO if they pay bribes. There are complex reasons exceptions, but in general us companies don't pay bribes unless someone's life is directly threatened. The same goes for UK companies, and I have no doubt all the other major countries in Europe have similar laws.
One of my companies competors get caught bribing. After investigation it was determined the company doesn't pay bribes and so this was a bad employee. The fines otherwise would have shut them down. This was used to justify sending me to anti bribery classes even though I don't do the type of work where I'm likely to have opportunities to bribe someone (or so I think?). I wasn't told who it was though.
They all pay bribes one way or another though. It's impossible to do business in the Third World otherwise. It's probably some sort of a lobbyist or a "subsidiary" or something along those lines. I know it's hard for an American to believe, but you just don't get to do business at all if you don't pay - large part of why I live and do business in the United States where one doesn't have to do it.
Some countries. India is in question here. India has problems but they are trying to clean up and that means that you both have a shot at not paying bribes and a real risk if you do.
Who pays bribe directly and how can someone even figure that out?
When companies need to bribe, they bring consultants which get paid for a different service which is unrelated to what they are actually offering. The consultants charge a lot and bribe the agents on the government either through favours like enjoy our jet or penthouse in Italy or London and get this specific thing done or tell us where to send this cash to which country and which account #.
It's as simple as that. All that money is often written off in accounts as "promotional expense" or sometimes as a different line item under consultancy.
Which would be the state of corruption and bribery happening literally everywhere in the world. Maybe different countries, different companies and different people have different scales of it, but the idea is the same.
Google probably didn't do any bribing directly, but their local consultants might do it to make sure the project going smooth and will simply invoice the "lobbying" expense to Google later. At least that's how it goes in my country.
There are ways to pay bribe, without even sounding like it. Like renting building owned by politicians, giving out cafeteria contract to catering services owned by politicians etc etc.
Probably all of them. The guy has a valid point, in Russia you can't even run a canteen or a pub without having to pay off food/health and fire safety authority - they can shut you down based on imaginary violations. Now imagine what happens when tax authorities, immigration / visas and foreign investment is involved.
