U.S. regulators accused International Business Machines Corp. of a decade-long campaign of bribery in Asia, saying employees handed over shopping bags stuffed with cash in South Korea and arranged junkets for government officials in China in exchange for millions of dollars in contracts. 
 
 The Armonk, N.Y., technology giant agreed to pay $10 million to settle the civil charges, which allege "widespread" payment of bribes by more than 100 employees of IBM subsidiaries and a joint venture from 1998 to 2009. In exchange... 

 California lawsuit accuses Bristol-Myers Squibb of fraud, kickbacks 
 
 Bristol-Myers Squibb is accused of bribing doctors and pharmacists by offering cash kickbacks, gifts and "happy hours" with the Los Angeles Lakers. 
 
 New York-based Bristol-Myers vowed to fight the case. "Bristol-Myers Squibb believes this lawsuit has no merit and the company will defend itself vigorously," it said in a statement. 
 
 Doctors also were treated to tickets and luxury suites for Lakers games, and received pointers, balls and autographs from some of the team's most famous players, the suit alleges. 
 
 The case against the drug company was developed with the help of former Lakers player Lucius Allen and his wife, Eve, who worked for Bristol-Myers and provided access to the basketball team, according to a lawsuit made public Friday. Doctors and family members were invited to Lakers Dream Camps arranged by the company, the lawsuit said. 
 
 California regulators are taking aim at giant drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., accusing it of bribing doctors and pharmacists to use its products by offering thousands of cash kickbacks, gifts and "happy hours" with the Los Angeles Lakers. 
 
 The California lawsuit was originally filed in March 2007 by Michael Wilson, a former Bristol-Myers employee. It was sealed until last week when a judge granted a request by the state Department of Insurance — which joined the suit — to make it public. 
 
 The case is the latest major legal action against Bristol-Myers over fraud accusations. In 2007, it paid $515 million to settle allegations by the federal government and other states that it used a kickback scheme to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs. 
 
 As part of the settlement, Bristol-Myers entered into a "corporate integrity" agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that required it to report accurate sales and manufacturing prices for drugs covered by government insurance programs. 
 
 The California lawsuit accuses Bristol-Myers of targeting the private insurance industry, making thousands of payments to "high prescribing physicians" who wrote prescriptions for many of its well-known drugs, including Plavix, Abilify and Avapro that together accounted for more than half of its $19.5 billion in sales last year. 
 
 The lawsuit said that Bristol-Myers paid nearly 15,000 kickbacks to doctors from 1999 to 2005. 
 
 At a Los Angeles news conference Friday, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said his department has evidence showing that the alleged illegal activity has continued until 2011. 
 
 Jones called the lawsuit the largest health insurance fraud case ever pursued by a California state agency. 
 
 "We need to be sure that doctors are prescribing drugs because those drugs are best for their patients and not because a pharmaceutical company provided doctors with trips and kickbacks," he said. "These illegal practices drive up the cost of health insurance for millions of Californians." 
 
 Jones said his department was not investigating any criminal wrongdoing, only the civil allegations in the lawsuit. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined to comment on the case. 
 
 A spokesman for the Lakers said he was unaware of the camp for doctors or the involvement of Allen in the pharmaceutical company. "The only relationship we have with Lucius Allen is as an ex-player," John Black said. 
 
 Allen, his wife and fellow plaintiff Wilson declined to comment because the case is ongoing, said one of their private attorneys, Loren Jacobson. 
 
 Lucius Allen worked as a sales representative for six years, promoting cardiovascular and diabetes drugs. 
 
 He left the company in 2003 to go on disability, Jacobson said. 
 
 His wife worked at the drug maker as an integrated health manager until 2002, responsible for getting the firm's drugs onto insurance companies' lists of covered medications.
– It's a good day for bribery allegations: In California, Bristol-Meyers Squibb is accused of bribing doctors to push its drugs in exchange for swanky gifts and "happy hours" with Los Angeles Lakers players. Players also participated in "dream camps" for doctors and their families. Ex-player Lucius Allen, who worked for the company with his wife, arranged the access and ultimately blew the whistle. Full story at LA Times. At IBM, employees in South Korea and China reportedly plied government officials in their respective countries with overseas trips, free PCs, and old-fashioned cash in exchange for contracts. IBM paid the SEC $10 million to settle the allegations, without admitting to any wrongdoing. Full story at the Wall Street Journal.