A String of Sales Successes, Then the Slammer

As a VP of international sales, Richard Bistrong compiled a string of commercial successes that was so unlikely and counter-cyclical that it should have raised some eyebrows. It didn’t, so he continued to make a ton of money for himself and his company until someone on the outside blew the whistle. Then he went to prison. One example of his MO: He used a middleman to pass a $15,000 bribe to a Dutch police official in return for specifications tailored to his employer’s product, which every police officer in Holland was required to buy. The contract that payoff facilitated lasted for years, with extensions and re-fill orders. If even mildly challenging questions had come his way, he says, his numerous shortcuts and schemes would have been revealed long before the DOJ got involved. Instead there was a “culture of silence” between himself and his employer that resulted in substantial penalties for both.