Political corruption |
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Influence peddling is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. It is also called traffic of influence or trading in influence. Influence peddling per se is not necessarily illegal, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has often used the modified term "undue influence peddling" to refer to illegal acts of lobbying. [1] However, influence peddling is typically associated with corruption and may therefore delegitimise democratic politics with the general public. It is punishable as a crime in Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, [2] Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Odebrecht S.A., officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador by Norberto Odebrecht, and is active in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Its leading company is Norberto Odebrecht Construtora.
In December 2008, then-Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009. The federal investigation continued after his removal from office, and he was indicted on corruption charges in April of that year. The jury found Blagojevich guilty of one charge of making false statements with a mistrial being declared on the other 23 counts due to a hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberation. On June 27, 2011, after a retrial, Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges, not guilty on one charge and the jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges. On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Amado Boudou is an Argentine economist and politician who served as the Vice President of Argentina from 2011 to 2015. He previously served as Minister of Economy from 2009 to 2011.
Boudougate is a political scandal in Argentina involving Vice President Amado Boudou and the printing house Ciccone Calcográfica. The AFIP, the revenue service of Argentina, requested Ciccone's bankruptcy in July 2010; but the AFIP reversed itself on September 24, 2010, and rescinded the bankruptcy request. A shell corporation named "The Old Fund", represented by Alejandro Vandenbroele, gave 2.3 million pesos to Ciccone; Vandenbroele became president of the organization as a result. Boudou, who was Minister of Economy at the time, instructed the AFIP to give Ciccone an exceptional moratorium to refinance debts. Boudou denied having any relationship with Vandenbroele, or even knowing about him, but it was confirmed later that Vandenbroele paid the rent and the cable television bill for an apartment belonging to Boudou.
Corruption in Brazil exists on all levels of society from the top echelons of political power to the smallest municipalities. Operation Car Wash showed central government members using the prerogatives of their public office for rent-seeking activities, ranging from political support to siphoning funds from state-owned corporation for personal gain. Mensalão for example was the practice of transferring taxpayer funds as monthly allowances to members of congress from other political parties in consideration for their support and votes in congress. Politicians used the state-owned and state-run oil company Petrobras to raise hundreds of millions of reais for political campaigns and personal enrichment.
Lee Jae-yong, known professionally in the West as Jay Y. Lee, is a South Korean business magnate who has been serving as the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics since October 2022. He is the only son of Lee Kun-hee and Hong Ra-hee. As of September 2021, Lee has an estimated net worth of US$11 billion, making him the fourth-wealthiest person in South Korea. In January 2021, Lee was sidelined from taking part in major Samsung business dealings after he resumed serving a prison sentence for his bribery and embezzlement convictions. He was pardoned in August 2022, before reinstating his position at Samsung.
César Guido Forcieri is an Argentine lawyer, economist, politician, and businessman. He is currently the Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay at The World Bank.
Alejandro Paul Vandenbroele is an Argentinian-Belgian lawyer and businessman who is a leading figure in the Argentinian financial scandal known both as Boudougate and as “Caso Ciccone,” which happened in February 2012. As president of a Dutch-based firm called The Old Fund, he has been accused of being a front man for Argentinian Vice President Amado Boudou and for Boudou's business partner Núñez Carmona in a purported scheme involving the purchase and control of the printing house Ciccone Calcografica, later known as Compañía de Valores Sudamericana, or CVS, which printed banknotes and documents for the government of Argentina.
José María Nuñez Carmona is an Argentinian businessman and entrepreneur who is a business partner and close friend of Amado Boudou, the Vice President of Argentina. He is one of the principals in the Boudougate scandal, which has been described by the Argentina Independent as “a messy tangle of crossed accusations.” The case involves the printing firm Calcográfica Ciccone, which has done many printing jobs for the Argentinian government, including the printing of money. The firm was bought in September 2010 by The Old Fund, a company run by Núñez Carmona's friend Alejandro Vandenbroele, and it was charged that Vandenbroele was in fact a front for Boudou and Núñez Carmona, with the latter acting as a middleman in the secret acquisition of the printing firm, whose name was changed after the purchase to Compañía de Valores Sudamericana (CVS).
Guillermo Reinwick is an Argentinian businessman who is implicated in the Boudougate scandal, which erupted in 2012.
Operation Car Wash was a criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil's Curitiba branch. It began in March 2014 and was initially headed by investigative judge Sérgio Moro, and in 2019 by Judge Luiz Antônio Bonat. It has resulted in more than a thousand warrants of various types. According to the Operation Car Wash task force, investigations implicate administrative members of the state-owned oil company Petrobras, politicians from Brazil's largest parties, presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, state governors, and businessmen from large Brazilian companies. The Federal Police consider it the largest corruption investigation in the country's history. The taskforce was officially disbanded on 1 February 2021.
In 2015 and 2016, a series of protests in Brazil denounced corruption and the government of President Dilma Rousseff, triggered by revelations that numerous politicians allegedly accepted bribes connected to contracts at state-owned energy company Petrobras between 2003 and 2010 and connected to the Workers' Party, while Rousseff chaired the company's board of directors. The first protests on 15 March 2015 numbered between one and nearly three million protesters against the scandal and the country's poor economic situation. In response, the government introduced anti-corruption legislation. A second day of major protesting occurred 12 April, with turnout, according to GloboNews, ranging from 696,000 to 1,500,000. On 16 August, protests took place in 200 cities in all 26 states of Brazil. Following allegations that Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, participated in money laundering and a prosecutor ordered his arrest, record numbers of Brazilians protested against the Rousseff government on 13 March 2016, with nearly 7 million citizens demonstrating.
Events in the year 2016 in Brazil:
The 2016 South Korean political scandal involves the influence of Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of shaman-esque cult leader Choi Tae-min, over President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
Events in the year 2017 in Brazil.
Laura Alonso is an Argentine politician who served as head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Argentina from 2015 to 2019 during the presidency of Mauricio Macri. She also served as member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2009 to 2015. Previously, she was Executive Director of Poder Ciudadano, the Argentine chapter of Transparency International.
The Odebrecht case is one of the largest corruption cases documented in recent Latin American history, spanning more than 30 years. It is based on an investigation by the United States Department of Justice, along with 10 other Latin American countries, into the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. This investigation details how Odebrecht would have made bribes to presidents, former presidents and government officials of 12 countries: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela, during the last 20 years, in order to obtain benefits in public contracting.
P.Semeraro, Trading in influence and Lobbying in the Spanish criminal Code pag. 297.