Word: extort
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Gerald was convicted in 1979 for attempting to extort money from a contractor who faced late charges for failing to complete the Baton Rouge Civic Center on time. According to testimony, Gerald offered to distribute money among members of the Baton Rouge city council. Despite conviction, he won a third senate term, then went off to jail. There he befriended Everett Bleichner, an insurance adjuster convicted of extortion. Bleichner was released on Feb. 9. and Gerald made him a senate aide. After years of never expelling anyone, the senate last week voted 33 to 3 to oust Gerald...
...stamping documents and processing licenses, are specifically permitted on the grounds that petty corruption is unavoidable almost anywhere. But there is a large gray area between that sort of bureaucratic paper shuffling and the discretionary authority of local officials to withhold approval for a project or license, and thereby extort not $50 or $100, but perhaps $10,000 or even $500,000 from a victimized company...
...prospectors. Prices skyrocketed as local landowners insisted on barracao (literally the trading post but, in another application, the company store), charging outrageous amounts for food and other necessities. Bottled water cost $3 a liter, eggs 500 apiece. At the same time, roving bands of local ranch hands began to extort gold from the miners. Soon, Serra Pelada was an armed camp...
...local landowners insisted on barracão (literally the trading post but, in another application, the company store), charging outrageous amounts for food and other necessities. Bottled water cost $3 a liter, eggs 50? a piece. At the same time, roving bands of local ranch hands began to extort gold from the miners. Soon, Serra Pelada was an armed camp...