Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

Everyone in our offices knows about the obvious stuff. We see the VPs hiring their own kids, nieces, and nephews for cushy internships. We see HR funneling entry-level hires almost exclusively through pay-to-play training institutes like Vector India. We see the inflated, single-source POs for test equipment and office supplies that clearly have kickbacks attached.
​Most people think that’s as deep as the rot goes. It isn't.
​While executive nepotism and rigged hardware POs happen right in the open, there is a much larger, multi-million dollar scheme running quietly in the background: our temporary staffing vendor ecosystem has been completely hijacked.
​If you’ve ever wondered why your team gets stuck with underqualified contractors, or why certain staffing agencies seem un-fireable no matter how badly they fail—here is how the game is actually being played.
​1. The Core Game: Rigged Staffing & Candidate Theft
​The staffing vendor selection process is entirely performative. A small ring of favored vendors receives guaranteed business regardless of performance, fully backed by site leadership.
​Site #1: The Brother’s Firm (Now Operating Through Fronts)
​At Site #1, the Site Leader's direct funneling of business into his brother’s firm previously spilled out into the open, causing major embarrassment. But instead of shutting it down, he simply adapted. To make the family link harder to trace, the business is now rerouted through third-party front vendors. The end result is identical: candidates from these channels lack basic technical qualifications, miss deadlines, and underperform, yet the flow of business remains bulletproof because leadership protects the network.
​Site #2: The Borqs / Sasken M&A Backroom Deal
​At Site #2, the Site Leader aggressively protected and promoted Borqs, overriding negative feedback from engineering leads.
​When Borqs was being acquired by Sasken, continuity with qualcomm was a major driver of the transaction's valuation. Prior to the deal closing, discussions took place where buyer representatives sought verbal commitments that QC would keep using Borqs. Assurances were given behind closed doors that the business relationship would continue. Internal procurement was effectively leveraged to secure a third-party M&A valuation.
​"Candidate Diversion" (Stealing Resumes)
​When an independent, honest vendor actually finds a stellar candidate, internal handlers step in. The candidate’s information is redirected to a preferred agency, which then submits the candidate under their own name—taking the bill rate from the another vendor.
​2. Why Management Enforces It: Coercion of Hiring Managers
​If a manager tries to build a solid team on merit, the message from above is uncomfortably clear: Play ball or you're on your own.
​Use a favored or front-linked vendor and the contractor fails? Nobody cares—it's just treated as the cost of doing business.
​Refuse to go with the preferred vendors? You're explicitly warned that if it don't work out, you take 100% of the personal blame and you're entirely on your own.
​3. The Bigger Picture: A Leadership Team Rotting from Top to Bottom
​Why hasn't executive leadership put a stop to this? Because they are all feeding at the same trough.
​The temp staffing racket isn't an isolated anomaly—it’s just the highest-value component of an enterprise where every level of leadership runs its own personal hustle:
​Executive Family Pipelines: VPs and Directors routinely bypass interview loops to drop their sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews into paid internships and junior roles.
​The Vector India Pipeline: Entry-level recruitment is heavily steered toward favored training institutes like Vector India, bypassing open recruitment pools in exchange for commercial referral arrangements.
​Hardware & Lab Equipment Slush Funds: Procurement for test equipment, lab hardware, and general office supplies is routinely awarded to preferred suppliers at inflated rates with zero competitive bidding.
​Why I'm Posting This Here
​If you report this internally, HR and Executive Leadership will not investigate—they will look for the leak. They already know about Site #1's shift to front vendors. They know about Site #2's promises to Sasken/Borqs. They know about the VP intern pipeline. They protected it because they built it.