bribes: cost of doing business

**akula** · 10-21-2006 02:48 AM

russiablog has an interesting post:

http://www.russiablog.org/2005/10/31...es_a_year.html

316 Billion US Dollars in Bribes... a Year!

MOSCOW – October 17, Balchug Hotel, downtown, Russia's FSB (counterpart to the FBI) arrested one of the top government officials of the Russian Tax Ministry (counterpart to the IRS) while he was collecting a cash bribe of $1 million. He was “assisted” in taking bribes by a senior manager from the government-owned Zentrobank.

According to the Indem Analytical Fund, Russian government officials took $316 billion dollars in bribes during the last year, which is a normal year for Russia.The average bribe in Russia today is $135,000. The entire Russian Federal budget for the year 2004 was $95 billion, since state revenues are dependent on oil prices, this year’s national budget is estimated to be slightly over $100 billion.

continued...

**Deejay** · 10-21-2006 03:09 AM

Haha good stuff Russia

I offered a Chinese salesperson a weeks wages to help me out......but she declined

**akula** · 10-21-2006 03:43 AM

the volume of bribes exceeds the GDP

it's insane

also, people don't take bribes in australia for some reason

not in places where i've worked anyway...

culture of honesty i guess

god bless australia

**Aletheides** · 10-21-2006 02:08 PM

lol ya thats kind of scary considering something like bribes is just now built into the business culture over there. I wonder what happens if you don't play along with the rules...good thing I will never find out.

But, I do remember reading a story about a famous russian spammer that got beaten to death in his luxury apartment...so, at least those Russians are doing something right...lol

**E320** · 10-22-2006 01:26 PM

MOSCOW – October 17, Balchug Hotel, downtown, Russia's FSB (counterpart to the FBI) arrested one of the top government officials of the Russian Tax Ministry (counterpart to the IRS) while he was collecting a cash bribe of $1 million. He was “assisted” in taking bribes by a senior manager from the government-owned Zentrobank.

NEPODELILSYA!

**The Stealthy One** · 10-22-2006 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by Aletheides

But, I do remember reading a story about a famous russian spammer that got beaten to death in his luxury apartment...so, at least those Russians are doing something right...lol

I saw the same thing - it was in Forbes a couple of months ago, in case anyone is interested.

**E320** · 10-22-2006 02:00 PM

But, I do remember reading a story about a famous russian spammer that got beaten to death in his luxury apartment...so, at least those Russians are doing something right...lol

I believe he was an Armenian running an English learning center in Moscow and used to advertise it via heavy spamming. Bad Karma, maybe?

**The Stealthy One** · 10-22-2006 03:47 PM

Yes, that's right. And here's what happened: he was at a nightclub, took home a few chicks with him in the very wee hours of the morning. Back at his place, they got him extremely wasted, then called their boyfriends, let the boyfriends in, and they beat him to death, even crushing his skull.

It was all because they were sick of getting his spam. If that's not a lesson to not spam, I don't know what is!

**E320** · 10-22-2006 04:02 PM

The other version was that the chick had drugged him, so that their friends could rob his place. But he woke up, a fight started and they had killed him. Stole his laptop and a few credit cards.