Anything New With the Ubester? Ah Yes: "Uber Faces Widespread Asia Bribery Allegations Amid U.S. Criminal Probe"

But of course.
We would expect nothing more, and accept nothing less.
'Tis Uber.

From Bloomberg:

• An Uber employee is said to have paid Jakarta police
• Law firm investigating possible quid pro quo in Malaysia

Uber Technologies Inc., facing a federal probe into whether it broke laws against overseas bribery, has embarked on a review of its Asia operations and notified U.S. officials about payments made by staff in Indonesia, people with knowledge of the matter said.

As the Justice Department looks into a possible criminal case, Uber is working with law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP to examine records of foreign payments and interview employees, raising questions about why some potentially problematic business dealings weren’t disclosed sooner, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.

Attorneys are focused on suspicious activity in at least five Asian countries: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. For instance, Uber’s law firm is reviewing a web of financial arrangements tied to the Malaysian government that may have influenced lawmakers there, the people said.

Uber said it’s cooperating with investigators but declined to comment further. Wyn Hornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.

Late last year, Uber had a run-in with Indonesia police over the location of an office in Jakarta providing support to local drivers, people with knowledge of the events said. Police officers said the space was outside city zoning for businesses, so an employee decided to dole out multiple, small payments to police in order to continue operating there, the people said. The transactions showed up on the employee’s expense reports, described as payments to local authorities....MORE

Regarding the headline, although this blog doesn't get very political I think we know how to.
We  can actually draw on some half- assed decent theoretical and more importantly, practical politics. In the case of Uber, Alinsky's Rules for Radicals #5 is always good for grins and giggles:

"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.

We also used to work rule #13:

"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

But with Kalanick gone that's back in the toolbox until another focus presents itself.

We really, really dislike big companies that play politics the way Uber does.