He said the Justice Department currently has 140 open FCPA investigations. Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division, said 20 agents were working on FCPA cases full time.
The cases are in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Nos. 09-335 through 09-350.
How am I making up stories? I'm not the one who made up the story that 250 people worked 40 hours a week for 2 years on this investigation. I'm not the one who calculated theoretical salaries and costs for said investigation! What OTHER 95% of the world are you referring to exactly? You may not agree with me, but you should at least consider being respectful...scheesman you are making up stories and believing them! "Potentially" doesn't mean squat! Have you ever heard the joke about the boy asking his dad the difference between potential and reality? You are naive to the way the OTHER 95% of the world turns. Yes it happens here too, but not anything like other places around the globe.
I am not defending the actions they are charged with, but the entire thing (with what we KNOW at this point) sounds like a real scam, on the part of the government. I will reserve final judgment until more facts are reliably corroborated.
Actually, I would say it's more like manufacturer rebates that dealers don't tell you about, then pocket when the deal is done.How is this much different than the shell game car dealers use to sell cars? Push, pull or drag it in, we'll give you $3000 for your trade in. They just aren't telling you they've marked up the price of the car you buy $3000.
Actually, I would say it's more like manufacturer rebates that dealers don't tell you about, then pocket when the deal is done.
I actually agree with you here. The more I think about it, not sure why they're involved in an International deal. Especially if the whole deal was hypothetical and the Feds weren't asked to investigate by someone.And in the situation described in the OP, you had 2 willing partners in the transaction. The people arrested and the "agents" that set up the sting.
I'm not a fan of prostitution but if you ever watch the stings on the show Cops, some of them are downright bs. They coax and coax some of these guys to come in. I'm just not a big fan of "sting" operations.
I actually agree with you here. The more I think about it, not sure why they're involved in an International deal. Especially if the whole deal was hypothetical and the Feds weren't asked to investigate by someone.
250 FBI agents worked on this. Seems like a waste of resources.
Given how many FBI agents they needed to raid Randy Weaver's home, this ratio shouldn't surprise you too terribly much... does it really?
Very splashy arrest there.
American ethics aside, let's compare the numbers.
The S&W folks marked up the sale of 1800 pistols by 20%.
At $800 each (which should be pretty steep if you are buying 1800) that comes out to ~$1.4MM.
Now, 250 agents working for 2 years on the project, as the article stated. Let's see what they cost...
That comes out to $22.5MM in expenses (not including fringes like insurance, 401K, etc.) on a sale of $1.4MM....hmmm
- Assuming they work full time (40 hours)
- Put in 45 weeks a year (even Gov't people have to have a vacation every now and again)
- Have a base pay of $25/H (~$50K year, pretty meager for special agent pay)
Keep in mind they (S&W) were paying an extra 'commission' (bribing) to an African (fictional) national. These types of payment are very typical in many parts of the world and considered an accepted part of business, to the extent that the 'commissions' are often 'budgeted'.
Hmmm, keep another country safe from the evil S&W empire or use the $22MM to really help America?
From the article:
Where are you getting multi-billion dollars?
Let's say 2,000 pistols at $500 each = $1,000,000.
250 agents X 2 years X $50,000 (assuming they were all at the entry pay grade) = $25,000,000.
Thanks for running the numbers. Like I thought, waste of resources.
LOL, they came out pretty even for having two independent folks running the figures.
Potentially multi-billion dollar contracts. Just because they got caught with a "small" order doesn't mean that they wouldn't have done the same thing to land the re-armament of (insert your favorite country here). And if you reread the article, you will see that 250 agents didn't work full time on it. It clearly states there's only 20 agents working current cases anyways. 250 probably includes the undercover agents on the other end, all arresting and transportation agents, the investigating agents, and all of the other "part time players" in this sting. I still stand by my position.