In Politics and Bribery, Neither Party Has Clean Hands

As the 2012 election approaches and politics is very much in the air, I’ve been spending some time looking at the records of both Democrats and Republicans on bribery and on antibribery initiatives. Today, we’ll address the bad news with two recent and egregious cases; tomorrow, we’ll follow with some good news.

Anyone who has done an antibribery training session abroad knows how disarming it can be to start with the admission that every country suffers from bribery. Yes—even the United States. Audiences never respond well to opportunities to be lectured on “their” problems. But they welcome the sense that everyone is in this together, and they will lean forward conspiratorially if the speaker goes so far as to discuss U.S. officials incarcerated for bribery—officials sitting in jail right now.

Sadly, there is always fresh material for such discussions. Over the last two decades, nationwide prosecutions of public U.S. officials for bribery or other corruption offenses have totaled 20,285. Two very recent cases demonstrate that corruption has no particular party affiliation.

In the Red Corner: Randall Harold Cunningham

Known to most as “Duke,” Cunningham had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy before becoming one of America’s more infamous politicians. A Republican, Cunningham was an eight-term congressman for California’s 44th district. He was a member of the appropriations and intelligence committees and was known for his frequent off-color remarks aimed at women and homosexuals. He took a tough stance on drug offenses, coining the slogan “Death to Drug Kingpins,” until his son’s conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute landed him in the courtroom, teary-eyed and begging for leniency. Cunningham co-sponsored the No Frills Prison Act in 1995, but may have regretted it by 2008, when he found himself behind bars and, presumably, longing for a few frills.

While in Congress, Cunningham parlayed his position as a decorated war veteran into political influence. He also used his personal and business connections to defraud the government and enrich himself. At about the same time that a defense contractor purchased a home from Cunningham at an inflated price, the Congressman began channeling lucrative contracts to the contractor. Cunningham made similarly corrupt arrangements with other contractors and drew up a “bribe menu” on an official embossed Congressional memo card—parallel columns represented millions of dollars in defense contracts, and the amount (in thousands of dollars) that Cunningham expected to receive in exchange.

Cunningham’s fraudulent asset transfers and bogus defense contracts came under suspicion in 2005. He pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud, and was sentenced in 2006 to over eight years in prison, the longest sentence ever received by a former Congressman . . . until William Jefferson.

In the Blue Corner: William Jefferson