Last year, Google had to pay $US500 million to avoid criminal prosecution by the US government. Using a convicted con artist, the feds caught Google aiding illegal online pharmaceutical sales. The operation — as described by the Wall Street Journal — is movie material.
The con artist is the man in the photo: David Whitaker. He presented himself as a Canadian drug dealers’ agent to Google sales executives. The government suspected that Google was aiding these illegal pharmacies by illegally publishing ads selling narcotics, steroids and other controlled substances to US citizens.
They hit the jackpot. The Google execs greedily bit the bait and Whitaker spent $US200,000 in government money paying the Mountain View search giant to publish these illegal ads.
The feds recorded incriminatory phone calls and emails showing that Google ad sales execs were completely aware of the legal situation of the pharmacy and its criminal implications, yet decided to take the money anyway. Whitaker told the WSJ that “it was very obvious to Google that my website was not a licensed pharmacy. Understanding this, Google provided me with a very generous credit line and allowed me to set my target advertising directly to American consumers.”
The government built such a strong case that Google had no other course than to settle.
According to their investigation, this went beyond just a few ad execs. Lead prosecutor Peter Neronha says they have proof that Larry Page — one of Google’s founder and now Google’s CEO — knew about this activity and the fact that it was illegal: “[w]e simply know from the documents we reviewed and witnesses we interviewed that Larry Page knew what was going on.”
Do no evil, indeed. The whole story is fascinating and a good long read. Read it all at the WSJ.
Don
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 7:11 AMahhaa! The WSJ! Owned by Rupert Murdodh – phone hacking where much is yet to be revealed worldwide and very anti internet and anti Google. Supported the anti-piracy legislation. Owner of the fair & balanced Fox News etc and publisher of TNOTW, The Australian and the Daily Terror (Telegraph) etc…. dubbed decades ago ‘The Dirty Digger’ by David Frost who Rupert threatened “I will get you!”
Kroo
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5:17 PMAnd how does this not make google guilty? Do no evil, my ass……. No better than the Murdoch press in my book.
Alex
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 11:23 PMthat sounds like its illegal substances in USA aka which might be perfectly fine its just pharmacology companies hold monopoly on alternative drugs etc
“Google was aiding these illegal pharmacies by illegally publishing ads selling narcotics, steroids and other controlled substances to US citizens.”
Sowhatmeh
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 7:21 AMTechnically google did no evil, they only “promotes” evil
Hehehe
Richard
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 6:07 PMpromoting evil could be seen as an evil act in itself.
Cameron
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 8:42 AMSo the moral of the story is, if you break the law, make sure you’ve got enough money to get yourself out of trouble!
wsDK_II
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:07 AM^ This – or make sure you know the right people.
lols
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:29 AMtheres no way a company like google could go down in todays world though id say
Jamie
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 8:56 AMNo, I think the moral of the story is, ad execs are scum sucking money-grubbers no matter what company they work for.
lolwut
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:57 AMnext in line….
the glorious tourism advertising for North Korea with AdSense !!
As long as the regime willing to pay top dollars for it…why the hell not eh?
martyfmelb
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:59 AMSo, the takeaway message here is, the US government effectively profited from these illegal activities by blackmailing Google for all the proceeds and then some. I wonder if Google won a lucrative government contract shortly thereafter ;)
Paul 'AngryNerd'
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 2:37 PMLOL, this is a perspective I missed upon the first read through. Thanks for pointing it out.
jeremy
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:59 AMOK lets looks at this another way for fun.
Maybe this is just revenue raising/rent seeking from US govt. They are pissed (no doubt) about google tax structuring and want some dosh back. The pharm companies lobbyists might not happy about thier profits being eroded by “cheap” canadian medicine “polluting” the US market and maybe whisper to congressmen that something needs to be done. It is notable that a fine was imposed rather than criminal charges laid – if anything really illegal was done, why no jail time for any googlers? After all there is an aussie “pirate” in a US jail taking it up the karsi for an extended stretch for something he did in Australia was not a crime here, yet Larry (a yank) is still a free man.
The “crime” of these canadian online outlets and the ads they published? Allowing poor americans to get legitimate drugs at reasonable prices.
The so called DOJ? One might characterise them as equally as corrupt standover guys with goverment ids trying to cover the money the US is pissing away and make pharm companies happy.
Just saying:-)
light487
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 10:41 AMSee.. THIS makes them evil.. not changing privacy documentation and consolidating services.
James
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 10:48 AMLooks like google’s gonna be the next “apple” for being unjust dishonorable pricks
Kroo
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5:24 PMOh google win by a country mile. Apple don’t collect your wifi data, or take pictures of your home, or track your every move on the web or even own the largest DNA collection company in the world. They don’t own the largest digital library in the world or constantly breach the privacy of its users. If you want to see more, watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfV6RzE30
Sowhatmeh
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 6:12 PMyes, apple did not need to do those things, since they already track you by iphone and ipad :)
Franz
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5:32 PMSo this is the way the US gov intends to eliminate it’s debt, not bad.