The purposes of the case “Bribery” is to master and develop the knowledge and skills necessary for solving practical questions of qualifying office crimes, criminal liability, and punishment for their commission. The acquisition of the subject matter presupposes assimilation and deeper studying of the theoretical and practical problems of responsibility for office crimes; formation of professional understanding of the main directions of improvement of anti-corruption and office crimes legislation; acquaintance with main theoretical and practical problems of release from criminal liability for office crimes.
The case “Bribery” is a component of fundamental knowledge of the basic crimes and applied types of punishment. The learning of the given case assumes special vocational guidance in the field of public prosecution and investigation, the law and judicial activity. In the course of the research on the given case, students can master their skills and have independent practice with texts ( criminal legislation, judgments on criminal cases, scientific literature), practice methods of their scientific analysis, acquire skills and abilities to research in the juridical sphere, and develop general professional skills and abilities for conducting a juridical-technical (qualification) analysis of definite situations in criminal cases.
At present, the bribery problem as a main kernel of corruption is particularly urgent. In spite of the fact that a legislator makes attempts to improve the legal mechanisms of combating this extremely negative social phenomenon, it is constantly revealing itself in more sophisticated forms. In order to understand the significance of the given case, it is necessary to define the concept of “bribery”, which is often discussed in the examples of argumentative essays for high school. Bribery is one of the most widespread kind of corruption, the most dangerous criminal phenomenon, which undermines the basis of the government, discredits and humbles its authority in the eyes of citizens.
Bribery is a deliberate criminal activity. This crime is characterized by the following features:
1. It is committed by a special subject (an official or a person occupying a governmental position);
2. The commission of the crime is possible only in case if the held official position is occupied by people with power;
3. It breaks the normal activity of governmental bodies, local governments, and the functioning of the governmental apparatus in general.
Thus, the given research paper includes such sections as an introduction, the background of two cases of bribery, the first in the U.S. and the second international, their analysis and conclusion, summarizing the main points of the research paper.
The U.S. Bribery Case
The American trade giant “WalMart” was involved in a large bribery and corruption scandal on the territory of Mexico. The company tried to hide the fact of carrying out an internal investigation upon bribing the authorities and high-ranking officials of both the USA and Mexico. Everything started in 2005, when one of the employees of the company’s legal department received an e-mail in which one of the former directors of the Mexican division of Wal-Mart informed about the numerous facts of bribery of the American and Mexican top heads, concerning the permissions for the construction of Wal-Mart stores in the country. The total sum of bribery amounted to $24 million.
Initially, the bribes were hidden from the head office of Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas as they were masked under usual legal accounts, the so-called “accounting fraud”. One of the key bribing heads of the company left the organization in 2005. Then, he told several lawyers of Wal-Mart about the corrupt activity and named many top managers of the company involved in the bribery process. WalMart did not face lawsuits for the first time. Thousands of claims come to the U.S. office of the company annually. The cases are absolutely various: from sexual discrimination up to the illegal hindrances to career development. Nevertheless, WalMart still remains the world's leading retailer with a huge net profit.
The International Bribery Case
The corruption scandal in the FIFA is the biggest one in its whole history , which burst out at the end of May 2015, when the Swiss authorities arrested several high-ranking officials of the organization, charging them with systematic bribes and corruption. The arrest took place two days before the elections of the new head of the FIFA. Owning to the bribery and corruption scandal, the newly elected FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, announced the decision to retire on June 2, 2015.
There are a lot of evidences of systematic bribes in the FIFA management. This problem was revealed in 2010 during the process of considering demands for two subsequent championships: in 2018 and 2022. The choice of small Qatar with its intolerable heat was made against the opinion of the technical FIFA committee, immediately raising suspicions about bribery. The leakage of the internal information and further investigation of Sunday Times gave exhaustive details indicating the illegal actions of the head of Qatar office of the FIFA Mohamed bin Hammam. The former allegedly bribed the representatives of African countries, having spent not less than $5 million . The official investigation made by the FIFA on this episode did not give any results; the possibility of revising demands was categorically rejected; the critics were stamped as “racists” and “losers”.
The federal law-enforcement bodies (FBI, Ministry of Justice and Tax Administration) have been investigating the FIFA case for three years. On May 20 2015, the grand jury of Brooklyn approved the indictment of 47 points, containing the charges of organized criminal activity, bribery, kickbacks, money laundering, and some other crimes, which have been taking place during 24 years. The purpose of corrupt actions included the distribution of the venues of the World Cups, the rights to broadcast matches and advertize. There is an assumption that bribery is involved in organizing the World Cups in South Africa, Russia, and Qatar. The indictment contains the assumption of bribery for the sum more than $150 million. The majority of European countries reacted to the investigation positively, believing that the FIFA became a source of briberies and corruption long ago, and it needs reforms and changes in personnel.
Analysis
Bribery is a psychological problem, characterized by psychological dependence and psychosexual development. Bribery and drug addiction are considered to be the result of the regression connected with powerless “I” and impossibility to overcome frustration and helplessness when encountering difficulties. This disorder should be classified in the international list of diseases and treated accordingly.
The legislature of the USA that concerns bribery and corruption is the most resolute one. The criminal legislation of the country contains a broader concept of penal corruption than European countries, which pay less attention to the problem of corruption. The policy of the U.S. prescribes punishment for active and passive bribery in the form of penalty, the sum of which is in three times bigger than the sum of the bribe, or imprisonment up to 15 years. Both types of punishment can be combined by a court decision. The legislation of the USA provides a penalty, the size of which is defined by the court, or imprisonment up to 2 years, or combination of both for stimulating an official to commit unlawful actions .
A separate standard of the U.S. laws provides criminal liability of the heads of banks for giving a loan or a monetary gift to an inspector or his/her assistant, who checks a bank or has the right to check it. This norm is supposed to prevent bribery. For committing this crime, punishment in the form of imprisonment for a period of up to one year or a penalty in the sum of the loan or a gift is prescribed. The same punishment and disqualification concerns the inspector who accepts the loan or a gift from the bank that he/she is inspecting or can inspect. A special norm concerns active and passive bribery of workers of the federal banking system aimed at receiving the credit. The article provides a penalty up to $1 million or a threefold size of the offered, promised, elicited, required, accepted bribe, or the bribe taker agreed to accept. There is also imprisonment up to 30 years or the combination of both types of punishment. If the value of the bribe does not exceed $1 thousand, the imprisonment cannot last more than one year.
There are noticeable efforts that show the USA struggles with corruption. They are expressed both in the corresponding steps within the country, and in important international initiatives in the specified area. There are main types of bribery and corruption crimes in the American criminal legislation. They include:
1) Actual bribery representing the disorders in the activity of public administration;
2) The so-called “commercial bribery”;
3) Bribery connected with the activities of labor unions;
4) Bribery in the field of sport.
In the American federal legislation, there is no uniform chapter about malfeasances. There is also no uniform system of their description in the codes of the states. The Chapter 11 called “Bribery, graft and the conflict of interest” in the Title 18 of the United States Code provides responsibility for corruption and bribery crimes. Moreover, such chapters as “Elections and political activity”, “Extortions and threats”, and “Public officers and employees” regulate the legislative actions implied for the individuals violating the law in the sphere of bribery and corruption.
The distinctive features of criminalization of bribery by the American legislation include, first of all, rather a broad definition of its signs and, secondly, quite a wide range of individuals who can be subjects not only to bribery but also to other malfeasances. The American legislation contains detailed norms regulating the responsibility for bribery in the field of public administration. Bribery is criminalized at the initial stage, since the beginning of the preparatory actions.
Speaking of China, the government pays close attention to the problem of bribery and corruption. The sharp need to struggle with this phenomenon arose in the early 1980s when there was a transition from a planned economy to a market one. Since the fall of 2012, the campaign aimed at overcoming bribery and corruption has been held with a new force. The efforts to fight bribery is implemented in several directions: the publication of various resolutions, directives, and improvement of the anti-corruption legislature. The anti-corruption campaign may slightly slow down the economic growth of China. It regards, first of all, the possible reduction of investments in a public sector: being afraid of new investigations, officials postpone or cancel projects connected with infrastructure . Therefore, the investments into large projects in 2014 were reduced in two times if compared to the planned indicator. In Mexico, the new law about the Constitutional reform, which presupposes the creation of a national anti-corruption system, came into force in May 2015. Bribery and corruption in Mexico is a structural problem, which can be eliminated by the well-grounded anti-corruption legislature.
To sum up, bribery is one of the most complex, difficult, and destructive problems in the modern world. Bribery can be defined as an offer, a promise, granting, acceptance, or an encouragement to commit an illegal or a deceptive action. Bribery of public officials and other forms of corruption in business undermine fair competition, distort economic investments, and deprive the government of the resources necessary for stimulating the growth and development of the country. Bribery and corruption represent serious risks for all types of business. These risks can lead to unlimited penalties, imprisonment of individuals, and losses of companies' reputation. In many countries, the control of performance of anti-corruption and bribery combating laws becomes stricter. Such control is exercised by the company through its employees or the third parties acting on behalf of the company in various international jurisdictions.
Analyzing the given bribery cases, students should understand what kind of behavior is considered to be “bribery” and what consequences can both a bribe giver and a bribe taker face. The researched case provides profound theoretical grounds of bribery as a crime and gives practical implementation of the received knowledge, using the examples of the international FIFA bribery case and the bribery in the U.S. Wal-Mart supermarket. Therefore, students received sufficient knowledge on the chosen type of financial crimes and mastered their skills with regard to this issue.