Over the course of four years, between 2007 and 2011, a general manager at a small African tire company in Kenya, a recently acquired subsidiary of a much larger U.S.-based organization, tries to increase sales. To do so, he writes checks to cash, lists the checks in the company’s check register as legitimate business expenses, and gives the money to local authorities and employees of government-owned and private sector companies.
Meanwhile, at another of the company’s subsidiaries in Angola, a manager marks up the cost of its tires. When others look at the records, the additional charges seem to be attributable to the rising cost of freight and increased customs clearing fees. Though initially denoted in records as payments to vendors, the manager later reclassified them to a balance sheet account and paid them out to employees of customers to encourage them to give the company more business.
