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. 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, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dictatorship and astounded contemporaries in 1988 by openly denouncing dictator Augusto Pinochet on live television. He served as Minister of Education from 1990 to 1992 and Minister of Public Works from 1994 to 1998 under president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle before narrowly winning the 1999-2000 presidential election in a runoff against Independent Democrat Union (UDI) candidate Joaquín Lavín. Lagos was the third president from the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy to have governed Chile since 1990. He was succeeded on 11 March 2006 by Socialist Michelle Bachelet, from the same coalition. From 2007 to 2010 he served as a Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Lagos made an unsuccessful bid to run for president in the 2017 Chilean general election.
Carmen Gloria Quintana Arancibia is a Chilean woman who suffered severe burns in an incident where she and other young people were detained by an army patrol during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. She survived, and thereafter became a symbol of hope for democracy in Chile to many, receiving an embrace and encouragement from Pope John Paul II.
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.
On 11 March 1990, Chile transitioned to a democracy, ending the military regime led by General Augusto Pinochet. This transition lasted 15 years. Unlike most democratic transitions led by either the elite or the people, this democratic transition process is known as an intermediate transition – a transition involving both the regime and the civil society. Throughout the transition, as the regime increased repressive violence, it simultaneously supported liberalization, progressively strengthening democratic institutions and gradually weakening that of the military.
The federal investigations into Jack Abramoff and his political and business dealings are among the broadest and most extensive in American political history, involving well over a dozen offices of the FBI and over 100 FBI agents tasked exclusively to the investigation. Given the extent and complexity of the suspected corruption, an entire inter-governmental task force, involving many federal government departments and agencies, has been established to aid the federal investigation. The U.S. Justice Department has announced that it will not reveal the details of the investigation, or who specifically has been targeted for investigation until indictments are issued. Under his plea agreements, Abramoff is required to answer all questions by federal investigators and prosecutors.
Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index gave Chile a score of 67 on a scale from 0 to 100. When ranked by score, Chile ranked number 27 among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked number 1 is perceived to have the most honest public sector.
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), is a Nigerian agency that was inaugurated on 29 September 2000 following the recommendation of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The mandate is to receive and investigate reports of corruption and in appropriate cases prosecute the offender(s), to examine, review and enforce the correction of corruption prone systems and procedures of public bodies, with a view to eliminating corruption in public life, and to educate and enlighten the public on and against corruption and related offences with a view to enlisting and fostering public support for the fight against corruption. The Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000 governs the committee's activities.
The Gürtel case was a political corruption scandal in Spain, which implicated officers of the People's Party (PP), Spain's major conservative party, some of whom were subsequently forced to resign or were suspended. Gürtel is one of the largest corruption scandals in recent Spanish history and was linked to related scandals, such as the Bárcenas case, which received media attention in their own right. The case came to public attention in early 2009, but for the most part, the suspects were not put on trial until October 2016.
Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal or "Cashgate" is a financial scandal involving looting, theft and corruption that happened at Capital Hill, the seat of Government of Malawi. The scandal was uncovered during the administration of President Joyce Banda, though it is believed to have begun prior to her taking office.
Corruption in Argentina remains a serious problem. Argentina has long suffered from widespread and endemic corruption. Corruption remains a serious problem in the public and private sector even though the legal and institutional framework combating corruption is strong in Argentina.
Ricardo Raúl Jaime is an Argentine politician who was the longtime Secretary of Transportation under Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Since he resigned that position in 2009, Jaime has been charged in dozens of criminal cases with such crimes as embezzlement, irregularities in awarding subsidies, abuse of authority, misappropriation of public funds, and conspiracy. In 2013, he received a suspended sentence of six months for concealment of evidence. In 2015 Jaime received an 18-month sentence for accepting bribes from the former train operator Trenes de Buenos Aires during his time as Secretary of Transport. Later that year, he then received a further six years imprisonment for failure to prevent the 2012 Buenos Aires rail disaster.
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.
The sexual abuse of minors by clergy of the Catholic Church in Chile and the failure of Church officials to respond and take responsibility attracted worldwide attention as a critical failure of Pope Francis and the Church as a whole to address the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Among a number of cases, that of Father Fernando Karadima, which became public in 2010, raised questions about the responsibility and complicity of several Chilean bishops, including some of the country's highest-ranking Catholic prelates.
Gloria Ana Chevesich Ruiz is a Chilean lawyer and judge. She is currently a minister of the Supreme Court of Chile, and previously served as president and minister of the Court of Appeals of Santiago.
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.
Carlos Enrique Cruz Lorenzen is a Chilean politician and economist who served as minister during Ricardo Lagos' government (2000−2006).
Milicogate is a corruption scandal involving officers and funds of the Chilean Army. The corruption scheme involved fraud and misappropriation of the public funds of Ley Reservada del Cobre. The case became known when in a story published by journalist Mauricio Weibel in The Clinic in 2015. By March 2019 As of March2019 investigations by prosecutors showed that at least 6,100 million Chilean pesos had been missappropiated. Among the military personnel sentenced in the case is former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba who is serving a prison sentence.
The Chilean mail bombs case was a terrorist attack which occurred on 27 September 2001 at the United States Embassy in Chile, perpetrated by Humberto López Candia, an informant for the Public Security Coordinating Council (CCSP). better known by the informal name from "La Oficina", and by Lenin Guardia Basso, a Chilean sociologist and intelligence analyst, known for having contributed to the dismantling of crime and drug trafficking during the transition to democracy in Chile.
