With money

The US Department of Justice called the actions of Congressman Randall Cunningham, who had a price list for bribes, “unprecedented.” For a $16 million Defense Department contract, he asked for $140,000 in cash and a yacht. For every additional $1 million in the contract, the congressman had to be given $50,000. In total, Cunningham received $2.4 million. In March 2006, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.

But his case can hardly be called unprecedented. Currently, the US is investigating Congressman William Jefferson. The FBI filmed him receiving a $100,000 bribe from a businessman in exchange for help in setting up a business in Nigeria. Later, $90,000 of this money was found in Jefferson's freezer. He is suspected of receiving another $0.4-1 million.

And in Germany this year, the head of the IT department of the country's financial regulator BaFin was arrested. Together with a friend, he founded a consulting company, which since 2003 has received orders for 7.6 million euros. Some of the orders that the manager made on behalf of BaFin were not fulfilled. The consulting company returned the money for them to the manager - in cash, cars and televisions (a total of 2.6 million euros).

Services

A major scandal has erupted in the International Olympic Committee (IOC). An investigation launched in 1998 revealed that Salt Lake City authorities spent, according to various estimates, $3–7 million to convince IOC members to choose the city as the capital of the 2002 Winter Olympics. About 20 of the 110 IOC members allowed members of the Salt Lake City organizing committee to pay for their vacations, first-class travel, etc. The wife of one of the IOC members received free plastic surgery. As a result of the scandal, 10 IOC members left their posts, and disciplinary sanctions were applied to another 10.

Not always such “incentives” are intended for officials. At the end of August, the German prosecutor’s office announced that it was investigating the case of Philips employees who gave gifts to purchasing managers of retail chains Media Markt, Saturn, etc. In order to obtain additional space for their products, Philips employees gave retailers watches, business suits worth up to 2,500 euros, and garden furniture items worth 2,200 euros. 118 people are suspected of participating in the corruption scheme.

A bribe can also be a job offer. In 2002, Pentagon employee Darlene Druyan supplied Boeing with data on competitors' bids during a $20 billion tender to supply tankers to the U.S. Air Force, and then moved to the company. She had to spend nine months in prison and seven under house arrest.

Securities

During the U.S. stock market boom of the late 1990s, technology stocks were considered a juicy morsel, with their prices rising exponentially in the first days of trading. But demand was far outstripping supply, and many retail investors were denied shares. Instead, the investment banks that organized these IPOs gave shares to the executives of their client companies, who would buy investment banking services from them in exchange.

For example, Salomon Smith Barney (the former investment banking arm of Citigroup) gave then-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers shares in 21 companies; Ebbers made more than $11 million by selling them. For example, in April 1999, Salomon transferred Rhythms NetConnections shares to Ebbers at an offering price of $21, a few days after the IPO, when the price rose to $90. WorldCom, using Salomon's investment banking services, paid $107 million in commissions. This was not Ebbers' only problem - in 2005, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison (the padding in WorldCom's accounting reports amounted to $11 billion).

Now, U.S. authorities are investigating the backdating of stock options at more than 100 companies, choosing to award stocks when their prices hit bottom and then quickly rebound. In 1998, Ken Levy, chairman of semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor, pocketed $6 million by exercising such an option. He received options 10 times between 1994 and 2001, just before stock prices spiked. The first charges were filed in July. Prosecutors say three executives at Internet service provider Brocade Communications Systems “routinely backdated options” in 2000 and 2004 and falsified financial statements to make it appear that they were awarded at market prices.

How they give in the West