bribery

On Wednesday ex- U.S. Congressman William Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 counts of bribery, racketeering and money laundering. The former Congress member from Louisiana was accused in 2007 of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from companies while using his office to broker business deals in Africa. FBI agents found the $90,000 neatly wrapped in foil and stashed in his freezer during a search of his residence.

Russian journalists estimated the profits of the traffic police officers and during their independent survey they revealed that Russian traffic officers are squeezed into the conditions that force them to accept bribes. The system of graft tends to become more and more common and even ‘legitimate’. The results showed that per one officer there are 300 motorists that “feed” a traffic guardian.

Siemens AG agreed to pay $800 million to settle a U.S. inquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and it's close to settling a parallel inquiry by German prosecutors, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The inquiries looked at whether the Munich engineering and transport giant (DE:723610: news, chart, profile) paid bribes to gain contracts, the paper said.