The Legal Environment of Business - Essay Example

The city had great moral values and therefore (2) this was the question asked by the general public to the Democratic Mayor of the city, Deedee Corradini, as to how the city of moral values ended up with such criticism. All the dreams of the people of the city had been washed off. This was due to the biggest bribery scandal that had taken place in the history and this crime had been committed by the officials of the city. It was thought that the 2002 Winter Olympics which was awarded to Salt Lake four years from then would bring into the town business of $ 2.8 billion. This was enough reason to influence the process of the selection of site it could not be resisted by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC).

When the scandal broke in January, it was found that out of the 114 IOC members, SLOC had bribed 13 of them with $393,000 mostly in the form of stipends and scholarships to family members. Then by the end of the month the figure had taken a toll to $800,000 of real cash bribes. Then again by early February, the toll had again risen to $1.3 million and for 24 members which was almost 1/5 of the IOC. The IOC had then said (3) that it would change the method of selection of the host cities and there was resignation given by four of its members.

Two of the top SLOC officials were - Vice President David Johnson and CEO and President Frank Joklik -were forced to resign and the committee underwent a comprehensive restructuring. There were also the allegations of criminal nature and for this reason, criminal investigations were ordered including investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Internal Revenue Studies. The companies like- Coca Cola, McDonald's, IBM, Visa, Eastman Kodak and United Parcel Service, being long time corporate sponsors of the Olympic Games threatened to take back their support.

It had also been found that there were several middlemen (4) who had gained much profit as brokers by selling the votes of IOC members from Africa and Middle East who had the least chance of winning the sites in their own areas.In the present circumstance, the situation of Bigtown seems very similar to that of the Salt Lake case. In the Bigtown case, the mayor has been voted on his assuring the people that he will change everything in the City and make it a place to be seen and to see. But all these words have somewhat disappeared with the time.

He is very much disturbed by the way things are going and wants to offer contracts for city work in exchange for convention business. This may not be called bribery but can be classified as lobbying. Moreover this is against law and is unethical. Being a mayor of the city, he should try to solve all the problems through his departments rather than giving off the city's works to the general public through contracts. The specific issues that link the Bigtow