This is very common in many non-FAANG companies. The way these guys do it is to set up a third party staffing company, say X, owned by relatives and friends, then buy services (usually contractors) through this third party company. Usually, large companies have some vendor management tool. Here, the hiring manager picks candidates that come from X.
When I was working at AT&T in New Jersey, my manager always hired contractors from one third party company, which is owned by the wives of his brother (then another ATT employee) and other ATT employee. Eventually, many managers colluded with this particular third party company so much so that other third party staffing companies couldn't place any people.
So, these staffing companies complained to the Ethics department. ATT Legal started investigation, and fired my manager, his brother (another employee), another guy. They couldn't do much further due to these reasons.
(a) the staffing company is owned by the wives of the two employees
(b) the staffing company is NOT the direct vendor of ATT. The primary vendor is another entity, who takes $1 per hour per candidate.
When I was working at AT&T in New Jersey, my manager always hired contractors from one third party company, which is owned by the wives of his brother (then another ATT employee) and other ATT employee. Eventually, many managers colluded with this particular third party company so much so that other third party staffing companies couldn't place any people.
So, these staffing companies complained to the Ethics department. ATT Legal started investigation, and fired my manager, his brother (another employee), another guy. They couldn't do much further due to these reasons. (a) the staffing company is owned by the wives of the two employees (b) the staffing company is NOT the direct vendor of ATT. The primary vendor is another entity, who takes $1 per hour per candidate.
This kind of fraud is so common in this industry.