BRIBERY
Years ago, in an Arkansas far away, it was a well-established
situation that a professional services firm wishing to do business—when the contract was governed
by a specific state cabinet agency—would have first to make a “campaign contribution”
to the constitutional head of that agency. It was a dirty but necessary cost of
doing business, one deemed and declared to be legal. How the head of the agency
turned the contribution to personal use was a process that led him to a prison
sentence.
Too bad for him. If the people and process were in operation
today, there is good news. The United States Supreme Court just ruled that it
would be perfectly okay to pay the favor off openly, in cash, and without danger
of indictment as long as the payment occurred after the work was done and not
before.
Only Sam “The Flag” Alito and Clarence “Big Cigar” Thomas could
have developed that logic stream.
There is one catch. That lies in the fact that the public
official must have sufficient trust in the paying party that such emolument can
be delayed until the proper and legal moment. Since the deal can’t be included
in the contract, both sides must trust one another. It could be done with a nod
and wink implying “I know as much on you as you know on me.” In botanical terms,
the leaves must be as rotten as the roots.
In other words, there must be a level of trust not normally
extant in such people.
It has taken awhile, but we are there.
Coda: Supposedly it would work like a "reverse tip." Now if only there were some way it could be made tax deductible.
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