MS has also been involved in bribery scandals all over Europe. Sometimes they were found guilty, sometimes the other party to the corruption charge found a way to make it all go away (more corruption). But when you do this all over the place the "it's the way things are done there" changes to "it's the way you do things". Every time MS is firing a couple of "rogue employees" because they got caught, not because they did it. And nothing changes at leadership level.
Their way of doing things certainly extends to the SEC and DOJ via more convoluted and corrupt influencing paths.
I can tell you that on a "small" scale that's not something required, at least I did not pay bribes in my little life, although sometimes it could make things faster or cheaper I guess, but that's my principles as I hate corruption.
Now Ikea-scale that could be unavoidable but I prefer not to have Ikea rather than living with corrupt officials around riding in their Mercedeses, showing off that living a honest life is strictly worse than living a criminal life. So children learn that you have to demand bribes to be successful in this life. That's never-ending circle. And worse of all it's partially fueled by foreign companies.
> Ikea decided not to bribe officials, so they didn't get approval to build their shops here
Pick one