back to article It's all true – I bribed big city's IT boss with fat bathroom bungs, admits tech biz chief exec

The owner of an IT supplier has admitted bunging a US city's tech boss cash bribes to bag lucrative service contracts worth millions of dollars. Parimal Mehta yesterday pleaded guilty in an eastern Michigan district court to one count of federal program bribery. He confessed he paid Detroit's director of departmental …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bathrooms...

    America is the country of bathrooms with no baths and restrooms where you cannot rest.

    1. Daniel M

      Re: Bathrooms...

      Because of the time zone difference, no one ever reads my "late" contributions ...

      For the nth time, there is no such thing as a bathroom without a bath, whether shower or tub. This is why bathrooms are exclusively found in private residences. The only exception is the real estate agentese "half bath," which in fact is a bathroom without a bath in a private residence.

      Restrooms, which are public, sometimes do have long benches in them although I concede that I am doubtful as to whether that is the "rest" referred to.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Bathrooms...

      They're called "comfort rooms" in the Philippines - and I guess bribe passing is one form of taking comfort.

  2. EveryTime

    > "America is the country of bathrooms with no baths and restrooms where you cannot rest."

    Best not to complain too loudly about the words and how they are used. Substituting one euphemism for another doesn't make the original any more correct. Pretty much every word we have for a shithouse is an older generations 'politer' word.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Best not to complain too loudly about the words and how they are used. "

      But I didn't complain - I merely observed.

      Best not to make stuff up about other posts and then try to hang something on them.

      Personally I think the word "loo" derived from French l'eau has the merits of brevity and lack of ambiguity.

  3. GrumpyKiwi
    Holmes

    It's Detroit. The surprise would have been if this wasn't taking place.

    1. Nolveys

      It's Detroit. The surprise would have been if this wasn't taking place.

      I know someone who lives in Detroit, he says things are getting better. He works for UPS as a tail gunner.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > It's Detroit.

      "Excuse me, I must go. Somewhere there is a crime happening."

  4. Roland6 Silver badge

    "Detroit paid FutureNet up to approximately $94 per hour for the services of such contract employees, much of which was retained by FutureNet as profit."

    Is $94 per hour high for temp. IT people in Detroit? I would have thought given the rates various UK IT companies charge their staff out at, this figure doesn't seem unreasonable given it is circa £70 per hour.

    Also just what is meant by "much"? Just because the employee might be getting substantially less per hour, doesn't mean the surplus is 'profit', depending on on-costs and overheads there may well be little or no residual profit.

    So this statement comes across as an attempt to sensationalise the normal.

    1. Hans 1
      Happy

      I would have thought given the rates various UK IT companies charge their staff out at, this figure doesn't seem unreasonable given it is circa £70 per hour.

      Indeed, and even that is low if you are looking for scarce experts in a given field for contract work, like experts in some specialized proprietary piece of software.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "Indeed, and even that is low if you are looking for scarce experts in a given field for contract work, like experts in some specialized proprietary piece of software."

        On the other hand, the contractors might be front line, minimum wage phone jockeys.

        1. Swarthy
          Devil

          Let's see....

          At a $94/hour contract rate, the "Break even" point would see the employee getting paid $47/hour, $42 if you allow for a 10% overhead. That would mean the employee is bringing home ~$87K/year. In some of the more expensive parts of the country this is a decent, mid-career IT Specialists paycheck. In Detroit, this would be a Senior Level Hard-to-find Specialist who could have retired, but they keep throwing more money to keep them.

          Most probably the employee was getting on the order of $22K/Year, or $10.50/hr. This would cost the employer $21/hr - $23/hr; meaning they were clearing about $70/employee/hour.

          Yeah, There was nothing honest about this consulting company.

  5. Chairman of the Bored

    Agree the salary is decent

    But we are talking about Detroit. In addition to my salary I want hazardous duty pay, foreign post differential, and a uniform allowance so that I can upgrade my shooting leather...

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