This claim is not something you need a CEO friend to tell you. Anyone on Reddit's conspiracy theory boards could give you exactly the same message. (BTW it's interesting to note that in my limited experience high level execs are just people, and prone to the same foibles as other people too. They don't automatically have insight into all things.)
So, at least in that issue, people on Reddit's conspiracy theory boards are less gullible than you, and other people believing these things don't happen/are rare, and that we live in a Disney world...
(And a difference with the CEO, that you probably missed, is that they have more likely than not done these kind of bribes themselves).
No, it's gullible because the CEO might not exist, and the boast might never been uttered to the OP...
...but the bribing and the situation described (including similar calculations) goes on every day, in every single country, since forever.
So to compare it to conspiracy theory takes a lot of gullibility on the good intentions, clean hands, and lawful operating of businesses, politicians, local officials, and/or the rich. Or maybe a better word would be "naivety".
This is not "Elvis is Alive", "The KKK killed Kennedy" or "PizzaGate".
