The SEC alleges that Oracle used a slush fund to bribe officials in India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
This behavior is sadly common among software companies doing business overseas, and it’s not unique to Oracle. In March, a former Microsoft executive claimed the company spent as much as $200 million a year in bribes for foreign officials.
The New York Times says the White House is still working on TikTok’s Trump-era data security deal, which has been in a weird limbo for nearly two years now. The terms are basically the same: Oracle plays babysitter but the app doesn’t get banned. Maybe it will happen now, though?
[The New York Times]
The NSA whistleblower has been living in Russia for the 9 years — first as a refugee, then on a series of temporary residency permits. He applied for Russian citizenship in November 2020, but has said he won’t renounce his status as a U.S. citizen.
[US News & World Report]
The Infowars host has already been hit with millions of dollars in damages for spreading lies about Sandy Hook — but today’s hearing suggests he could be on the hook for even more.
The US government’s two biggest antitrust regulators — FTC chair Lina Khan and Justice Department antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter — appeared for a Senate Oversight hearing on Tuesday, and there were two quick takeaways:
1) Republicans still are eager to notch some kind of win against Khan and the Democratic FTC majority
2) They don’t really know how to do it yet.
Expect a lot of fireworks here if Republicans take back the Senate majority in November.
[Washington Post]
This great chart from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal shows tech stocks following the price of major cryptocurrencies. Basically, when Bitcoin has a bad week, it takes the whole industry down with it.
Makena has the news about the conservative social network’s falling user base and subsequent pivot — but Parler has also been doing increasingly desperate things to make money, including licensing out their email list to weird content marketing schemes.
For instance, here is an actual email Parler sent me last month.
