Word: corruption
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...opening argument, Assistant Prosecutor Edward A. McDonald depicted Williams as "a corrupt public official," who had promised to use his influence in Washington to obtain Government contracts for a titanium mine in Virginia. In return, the Senator was to receive part ownership of the mine and $12.6 million. McDonald, quoting from FBI tapes, said that Williams had told agents he would "with great pleasure talk to the President of the United States about [the mining contracts] and in a personal way get him as enthusiastic and excited." McDonald also quoted from tapes showing Williams pledging to "do everything...
...discussing payoffs by businessmen in making foreign deals, "Big Profits in Big Bribery" [March 16], you failed to understand that it is extortion, not bribery that is the problem. Until all exporting countries agree not to submit to extortion, the practice will flourish. The 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes no more sense than would unilateral disarmament. The law does nothing more than penalize...
...Administration will probably move to alleviate the tax burden of Americans working abroad. U.S. contractors are now sometimes forced to use foreign labor to keep their bids competitive for overseas work because U.S. taxes make it too expensive to send U.S. workers abroad. The vague language of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, aimed at stopping bribery to secure overseas sales, currently discourages some businessmen from getting involved in exports at all. The Administration is likely to support clarification...
While the U.S. took a firm moral stand against corruption with the 1977 legislation, the governments in most leading West European countries either openly condone bribery or look the other way. A confidential West German memorandum by the Federal Office for Foreign Trade Information advises companies to be prepared in difficult deals to fork over as much as 20% of the contract price to corrupt foreign officials. All such expenditures, which can run into the millions of dollars on large engineering and construction projects, are completely tax deductible as a necessary cost of business. Italy passed...
Senate Republican John Chafee of Rhode Island is expected to re-introduce a bill this week that would make some such changes in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Chafee lauds the law as an "important step toward the objective of prohibiting bribery of foreign government officials." But he also says that it is "difficult to decipher, hard to implement, and its ambiguities have bred confusion...