You think inviting someone to conferences is the same thing as putting $700k in their personal bank account?

Is this satire? What is going on in this thread?

It is VERY different, come on.

It's an open conference offered by the largest player in the space vs. a shady deal between a supplier and ONE person of another company, without its employers consent, on top of that.

Hmm, even at my most cynical I would say the difference is the free conference is a much smaller (and thus presumably less effective) bribe. Giving away tickets to a conference which they sell the tickets for costs AMZN very little (sure, there are costs associated with putting it on, but those would have had to be paid anyhow, adding an attendee or two won't change much). So it's a few grand worth of airplane tickets vs. $700K...

This situation is like lobbying: is it the people's voice in fungible action or is it mega-corporations funneling money directly into politicians pockets?

The answer is probably both, and any attempt to litigate it will probably be abused and lead to even more issues.