Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. George Washington, Moral Maxims, Virtue and Vice, The Trial of Virtue
Never underestimate the effectiveness of a straight cash bribe. Claud Cockburn
The prosecution’s witnesses included not only long-time accusers such as John Whitmer and W W Phelps ... but also several more recently-added individuals to the growing list of dissenters [including] ... Sampson Avard, supposedly the most loyal follower of them all. He spilled his proverbial guts, exposing to a Gentile court of law every Danite secret. He even produced a list of Danite officers, which included a Secretary of War. The judge, it seemed, was seeking specific information proving Smith’s plans to establish a kingdom within the US – a treasonous offense.
Following six months of imprisonment in Liberty Jail, Smith and his cohorts were transferred to Boone County, Missouri, to stand trial against evidence so compelling that Abanes describes it as ‘doom[ing] [them] to a life of imprisonment’.
As fleeting fate would have it, however, Smith and his band of crooks, cronies and conmen managed to escape after Joseph and his brother Hyrum bribed the sheriff ‘with a jug of whiskey and $800’. Richard Abanes, One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church from p155
You are so strict about a little gift and yet your electronics company pays our finance minister a million dollars for his co-operation in securing this contract. Yes, Minister s3e4: The Moral Dimension, Arab civil servant, BBC 1982
We have looked into every brown envelope. ibid. Jim to Guardian journalist
Huge bribes were paid by the Saudis ... Hundreds of millions of dollars in individual bribes, commissions. The Serious Fraud Squad was about to name names, and Blair stood up and said, Well, because of national security we’re ending this investigation ... It’s a huge scandal. John Pilger, lecture Freedom Next Time
In the early Sixties Ghana became a Mecca for European industrialists eager to win large contracts from Nkrumah’s government. They began to discover that the easiest way was to offer officials from Nkrumah’s party a bribe. This soon became the accepted way of doing business in Accra. What resulted was a rush to sell Ghana anything, no matter now inappropriate for an emerging African nation. Vast sums of Ghana’s precious foreign currency were spent on these projects. Then in 1964 Nkrumah’s industrial experiment received another body-blow: the world price of cocoa which had been falling for four years finally crashed. It was Ghana’s main source of foreign exchange. The millions of pounds needed to pay for the new factories began to dry up. Ghana, once one of the richest countries in Africa, began to slide into debt. Nkrumah turned to help to the European industrialists … Nkruma was an increasingly isolated figure on the world stage. What had once been seen as visionary ideas were now perceived as dangerous megalomania, and his country was sinking ever deeper into debt. Adam Curtis, Pandora’s Box V: Black Power, BBC 1992
He [Khashoggi] told Lockheed that the only way to win the [arms] deal was to bribe the Saudi government. Ten years later in a Senate investigation Lockheed’s chairman admitted what had happened. Stirling told the British government they would have to do the same as the Americas: pay commission to their agents in King Faisal’s entourage. If they didn’t, Britain would lose the deal. In December 1965 the Saudis announced they would buy the British planes: the bribes had worked. It was the biggest export deal in Britain’s history. And King Faisal came on a state visit to celebrate it. It was also the beginning of the modern arms trade with the Middle East which has grown to dominate Britain’s economy. And from it also came a much wider commercial relationship with Saudi Arabia. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set I: Who Pays Wins ***** BBC 1999
The arms business kept growing. And in 1985 Mrs Thatcher announced what was going to be the biggest arms deal in history … Ever since there have been allegations that really it was secured by vast bribes to key members of the Saudi establishment. Adam Curtis, Bitter Lake, BBC 2015
With the [Nigerian] petrodollar rush came huge contracts for public works, which were handed out to Western companies that were colluding in the bribery process. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Fifa accused promises ‘tsunami’ of revelations at bribery hearing. International alliance of politicians formed to press for reform of discredited governing body. Independent on Sunday 29th May 2011
Corruption at the heart of world football. We reveal the three senior FIFA officials linked to an extraordinary list of secret payments worth around $100,000,000. Panorama: Fifa’s Dirty Secrets, BBC 2010
Big brands paid millions in good faith to put the World Cup logo on their products … TV networks paid even more … So why did ISL always win the fight for the World Cup rights? ibid.
And another World Cup in South Africa: and Jack Warner was at it again ordering $84,000’ worth of tickets from FIFA to sell to touts. ibid.
Nixon’s men paid out over a quarter of a million dollars in hush money that summer. Watergate, BBC 1994
The biggest margin in history: it looked like he had got away with it. ibid.
Envelopes stuffed with cash had been dispatched to Howard Hunt an his men. ibid.
Dean tried to persuade the President that Hunt’s blackmail threatened all the inner circle especially Nixon’s close friend John Mitchell who had organised the Watergate break in. ibid.
Dean knew the president needed a scapegoat before the senate hearing started and he began to fear he was it. ibid.
‘The pop charts are no-way [an] accurate guide to what’s selling actually; they are a joke … It’s who’s giving away more.’ World in Action: The Chart Busters, ITV 1980
Some major British record companies have manipulated the pop charts … by giving free gifts to record stores. ibid.
International bribery is big business. And in just the past four years some of Britain’s best known firms have faced bribery charges across the world, including big companies like GlaxoSmithKline and even publishers like McMillan Education. In all, British firms have now paid over £4 billion in fines and settlements to British and American authorities for foreign bribery or bribery-related actions. Exposure: No Bribes Please! We’re British, ITV 2012
Anti-bribery laws: until 2011 not Britain. ibid.
They were usually recorded as expenses. ibid.
November 2017: Planes grounded, borders closed: a five star hotel turned into a prison in a massive crackdown on corruption. It opened the door on the secret world of huge kickbacks and bribes … A new Saudi ruler has led the crackdown. House of Saud: A Family at War II, BBC 2018
Rozzer: I’m not used to champagne. You see, after I’ve fed the kids and paid the mortgage there’s not much money left for champagne.
Rayston: Would £200 help?
Rozzer: £400. He Who Rides a Tiger 1965 starring Tom Bell & Judi Dench & Paul Rogers & Kay Walsh & Ray McAnally & Jeremy Spenser & Peter Madden & Inigo Jackson & Annette Andre & Edina Ronay & Frederick Piper et al, director Charles Crighton
A $500,000 bribe to stall charges against Jimmy Hoffa. Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann radio show 2012, part III: The 18 Minute Gap 11.14
A new bribe for $1 million to let Hoffa out of prison with special conditions that the Mafia wanted. ibid.
The Inside Ring of the Union Pacific Railroad Company: Massive Bribery of Senators and Members of Congress. Grant’s Candidate for Vice President and Other Leading Radicals in the Ring. Robert Redford’s The West aka The American West II: Two Front War, AMC 2016
This films takes you inside a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal … An Icelandic company is plundering Africa’s resources by bribing its politicians. Anatomy of a Bribe, Al Jazeera 2019
Two Namibian cabinet ministers – the Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of Justice – are accused of accepting bribes. ibid.
Nine out of ten schools are cheating. The other one is in last place. The Scheme, Jerry Tarkanian, head coach UNLV 1973-1992, Sky Documentaries 2020
I wanna tell the bigger story … Everyone went in it with the best intention … ibid. Christian Dawkins
Ten men, including four assistant coaches at top tiers programs, were arrested on corruption charges. ibid. news