Monday, February 27, 2006

From Cash to Yachts, Convicted Congressman Set Bribery Rates

From ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1667009&page=1



Feb. 27, 2006 — Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided.

Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham's sentencing hearing this Friday...

...The sentencing memorandum includes the California Republican's "bribery menu" on one of his congressional note cards, "starkly framed" under the seal of the United States Congress.

The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.

The rate dropped to $25,000 per additional million once the contract went above $20 million.

Keep in mind that Randy "Duke" Cunningham is just one of the ones that got caught. As near as I can tell there are 400+ more just like him but perhaps a tad more sophisticated. When are the American people going to tire of watching their hard-earned tax dollars get coverted into yachts, million dollar homes, and Rolls-Royces for crooked politicians ?? - Etienne