Amazon Seller Consultant Admits To Bribing Employees To Help Clients (cnbc.com) 6
An influential consultant for Amazon sellers has admitted to bribing employees of the e-commerce giant for information to help his clients boost sales and to get their suspended accounts reinstated. From a report: Ephraim "Ed" Rosenberg wrote in a LinkedIn post that he will plead guilty in federal court to a criminal charge, stemming from a 2020 indictment that charged six people with conspiring to give sellers an unfair competitive advantage on Amazon's third-party marketplace. Four of the defendants have already pleaded guilty, including one former Amazon employee who was sentenced last year to 10 months in prison.
Rosenberg, who's based in Brooklyn, is a well-known figure in the world of Amazon third-party sellers. He runs a consultancy business that advises entrepreneurs on how to sell products on the online marketplace, and navigate unforeseen issues with their Amazon account. Rosenberg's Facebook group for sellers, ASGTG, has over 68,000 members, and he hosts a popular conference for sellers each year. "For a time, some years ago, I began to obtain and use Amazon's internal annotations -- Amazon's private property -- to learn the reasons for sellers' suspensions, in order to assist them in getting reinstated, if possible," wrote Rosenberg, who is due to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle on March 30, for a change of plea hearing, according to court records. "On some occasions, I paid bribes, directly and indirectly, to Amazon employees to obtain annotations and reinstate suspended accounts. These actions were against the law."
Rosenberg, who's based in Brooklyn, is a well-known figure in the world of Amazon third-party sellers. He runs a consultancy business that advises entrepreneurs on how to sell products on the online marketplace, and navigate unforeseen issues with their Amazon account. Rosenberg's Facebook group for sellers, ASGTG, has over 68,000 members, and he hosts a popular conference for sellers each year. "For a time, some years ago, I began to obtain and use Amazon's internal annotations -- Amazon's private property -- to learn the reasons for sellers' suspensions, in order to assist them in getting reinstated, if possible," wrote Rosenberg, who is due to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle on March 30, for a change of plea hearing, according to court records. "On some occasions, I paid bribes, directly and indirectly, to Amazon employees to obtain annotations and reinstate suspended accounts. These actions were against the law."
Wrong on both sides (Score:5, Insightful)
He broke the law. But a big company suspending accounts without explanation is also very shady. It happens all the time, and innocent people can suddenly lose their business without recourse. Transparency is essential. There shouldn't have been a need to bypass the system to find out what's going on.
Found the problem (Score:3)
> In 2018, Amazon fired four employees in India who were allegedly connected to the bribery scheme.
I like India, and I like Indians, but I despise their bribery culture.
If anyone is ever interested in a good look into what goes on there, check out: Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom,
By: Katherine Eban
They will kill people for a bribe. They have, and they will.
My life would be very short in a bribery culture. I would just kill someone and that would be the end of it.
Re: (Score:2)
I read Bottle of Lies. It was incredible. I was so tired of being gaslit by pharmacists, doctors, the FDA, everywhere-- it was nice to see someone lay it out all there.
I think India has a cheater economy that can be explained, at least in part, by some game theory that is common with mass populations of poor people with relatively few available opportunities (and perhaps a nice helping of a caste system that brands you from birth-- so much so that many people decide to change their last name)
Re: (Score:2)
not to mention the Bhopal event.
Nothing to see here... (Score:3)
Honestly this sounds like normal business practices. The only problem is that he got caught. Maybe he didn't bribe the right people.