bribes

Larry David bows to the will of the Internet

Twitter continues to grow apace: 140 million users and 340 million tweets a day! The cover of Time magazine! Betty White!

And yet, its charms have seemed to elude Larry David. While other celebrities have embraced the 140-character microblogging service, the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star has stayed away.

Until now.

Remember when we told you about Charity Bribes? The site, which debuted in March, lets Internet users collectively coerce famous people to agree to amusing stunts in exchange for charitable donations to their favorite causes.

The inaugural proposition: Get Larry David to join Twitter for the promise of … Read more

Charity Bribes: Coerce celebs for a good cause

If I could make one celebrity do whatever I wanted, I'd have Kobe Bryant come to my house and feign interest in my problems. But how could I get him over? Letters? Begging? None of it has worked so far will work. Maybe I can appeal to his kind heart?

If Bryant would come spend the afternoon with me, I'd gladly make a donation to a charity he supports.

This is the logic behind the new site Charity Bribes, which lets regular old citizens of the Internet come together and, as a group, extort their favorite famous person. The site's debut proposition: If Larry David joins Twitter, 51 people will give $1,356 dollars to an environmental charity. If he doesn't, the charity gets nothing.

The basic message: "If you really cared about the environment, Larry David, you'd come online and make jokes with us in 140 characters or less."

It appears to be a win-win-win: The charity gets a nice donation, Twitter gets funnier, and Larry David gets more new technology to argue with. … Read more

Feds: IBM bribed South Korea, China officials

IBM has agreed to pay a settlement of $10 million to settle civil charges that it had an ongoing practice of trading bribes for computer equipment contracts, according to court documents filed today.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the SEC is suing the company over cash bribes that it says IBM paid between 1998 and 2003 to South Korean government officials, and between 2004 and 2009 to Chinese government officials.

IBM did not admit to wrongdoing, but did say it has higher ethical standards for its employees and had taken "appropriate remedial action," according to the … Read more

Apple manager pleads not guilty in kickback case

Paul Shin Devine, an Apple global supply manager arrested last week for allegedly taking large kickbacks from several suppliers, pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif.

Devine was indicted last week by a federal grand jury on 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and accepting kickbacks, according to court documents. The indictment alleges that he took advantage of his role at Apple to acquire confidential information, which he then allegedly sold to several suppliers to help them negotiate better contracts.

Beyond the grand jury indictment, Apple has also filed a civil suit … Read more