And you thought it only happens in third world countries

[mapuc]

Stories about authorities and High ranked military taking bribery in some poor country in Africa etc

Not breaking stories like this:

(from a Danish article-Have used google translate

"Fraud Squad arrest 27 in bribery case

26 current and former public officials suspected of bribery. Further one is arrested in action.

26 former and current government employees have been arrested, suspected of having received bribes in the form of gifts like mobile phones, tablets and other electronic equipment.

The many arrests early Tuesday morning has happened in a large action in cooperation between the Fraud Squad and police throughout the country. Under the action is carried out searches of the detainees' homes to secure evidence in the case.

Concurrently, the Military Prosecution Service made a similar action against a number of employees of the defense forces. Here are 5 people so far arrested suspected of having received bribes. It is officers from low to High

The value of the equipment varied in size, but according to the Public Prosecutor typically been between about 4000 kroner(=600 $) and approximately 50,000 kroner(7600 $). The gifts are for example, received on transactions with the company, writes the Fraud Squad.

The 27 are linked to a variety of authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DSB(Danish Railroad Service), National Police and the Public Prosecutions and the Military Intelligence Service. "

have tried to find an English version about this case.


Markus

[Von Due]

I would be flabbergasted if it turned out there has been as many as one, single power structure or organisation or corperation anywhere in the world that hasn't seen corruption of some kind or another. I am not surprised by this story, unfortunately. The fact that there is a strong focus on corruption "anywhere but here" ought to set off a few alarms.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Not surprised at all. It is about the same thing over here in Finland, except that local practice seems to favour providing services to each other rather than money or items which can be tracked.

[Sailor Steve]

I'm not surprised either. Von Due said it best, that every country and every company has corrupt officials. The difference is that in most civilized countries, as your own article shows, there are organizations dedicated to catching and punishing the fraudsters, whereas it seems to be fairly common in Third-World nations to have the corruption be an integral part of the system.

[mapuc]

The number is now 32 detainees. Off course It also occur bribery in our industrial continent is not an unknown phenomenon. Mostly its persons from the private sector who have received bribes. it is the scale of this case that shakes the Danes.

Markus

[vienna]

The late, great President Eisenhower, as part of his farewell address, warned the American people of the dangers of the "Military-Industrial Complex", a term he used to describe the overly cozy relationship between the military hierarchy and the large industries involved with military needs. In the years since his warning, the "Military-Industrial Complex" has grown to be arguably the most organized of all US corrupt enterprises. As Sailor Steve pointed out, civilized countries do have investigative and prosecutorial agencies to weed out and punish such corruption; however, here in the US, those agencies are often hobbled by the power and influence the "Complex" seems to hold over lawmakers and others in the government. It would be very heartening to see somebody elected to the office of President or the power leadership in Congress who would stand up to and dismantle the machine. The savings to taxpayers alone would be staggering, not to mention breaking the ever ongoing cycle of corruption...



<O>

[Von Due]

There was a smaller scale case here in Norway in 2007 where people in the military, involving a vice admiral, and at least one in the parliament came under investigation for taking briberies from Siemens in what became known in the news here as the Siemens Scandal and a bit of a soap opera. Noone were found guilty, some were fined, noone accepted the fine, everyone were ultimately fine with them not accepting the fines, Siemens was blacklisted by the military in the sense that they were basically told that ok, give us some time to find a way around it and we'll buy from you again soon. Now it's all forgotten.

It's true though that in many countries, there are investigating bodies that track down corruption but you don't have to travel to the 3rd world to see corruption as the norm.

[Jimbuna]

have tried to find an English version about this case.



May prove difficult, we hardly have any military left to bribe these days :)