The American Consulting Firms That Live in Fear of Their Murderous Clients What keeps companies like McKinsey in the bus

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

The American Consulting Firms That Live in Fear of Their Murderous Clients
What keeps companies like McKinsey in the business of whitewashing the regimes of bloodthirsty dictators? Increasingly, it’s the consequences of crossing them.


The hearing, hosted by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, focused on how groups like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Teneo were working for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, better known as the Public Investment Fund, or PIF. Worth nearly $800 billion, the PIF has overseen Saudi Arabia’s recent spending splurge on everything from sports to tech to telecoms. Much of it has been predicated not only on the Saudi regime diversifying its oil-rich economy but also on laundering the dictatorship’s image, battered as it is by things like the assassination of journalists and the jailing of women’s rights protesters. And much of that effort has, by all appearances, come with the help of American consulting groups, which have helped to steer Saudi efforts to whitewash the country’s reputation.

There’s only one problem. As senators discovered while grilling the witnesses, these consultants claimed they couldn’t reveal what, precisely, they’re actually doing on behalf of the Saudi regime, or even how much money they’re making in the process. Mind you, they all claimed to want to reveal what they were doing and that they wanted to comply with senators’ subpoenas for information—but they couldn’t do so because of a particular occupational hazard: threats from the Saudi regime itself.

Led by Democratic senator and PSI chair Senator Richard Blumenthal, the hearing centered on the consulting groups’ lack of compliance with the committee’s previous requests for documents about their work in Saudi Arabia. Over and again, the consultants claimed that, unfortunately, their Saudi work had to be kept secret, even from American legislators, because revealing it would contravene Saudi law.

According to Rich Lesser, head of the Boston Consulting Group, his organization is “caught between two sovereigns,” with Saudi officials being “explicit” that complying with subpoena requests is “a violation of Saudi law.” McKinsey partner Bob Sternfels said much the same, claiming that complying with congressional subpoenas “could result in civil or criminal penalties” in Saudi Arabia. Teneo CEO Paul Keary—who claimed that Teneo is a “proud American company”—also pointed to Saudi threats as the reason his organization couldn’t fully reveal its work for the Saudi regime.

---------------------

Pulling back, the implications of the companies’ claims were shocking. For the first time, American organizations claimed they couldn’t reveal the scope of their pro-dictatorial efforts because of threats from those same dictatorships. It was an unprecedented defense for stymying efforts at foreign lobbying transparency—and one that could set a debilitating precedent moving forward.

https://newrepublic.com/article/178942/consulting-firms-saudi-arabia-hearing

[limbicnuminousity]

1. It's a good thing corporations can't vote.

Wait...

[brush]

2. The old saying, "nice work if you can get it"...not that.

Would want to entangled up with those murderers...even for the money they pay to keep mouths shut or else.

[E. Normus]

3. seems to me

that American companies must follow American laws! Comply or get shut down. Base your unAmerican company in Saudi Arabia if they would have you, and if you dare.

[hatrack]

4. Why not a two-fer? Threats (and company cowardice), sure . . .

. . . . but let's not forget that good old-fashioned reluctance to give up all that sweet, sweet consulting cash. 'Murca!!!!