Lowell Bergman Discusses Problem of International Corporate Bribery

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 7, 2009 at 5:49 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

How do some large corporations win their multi-billion dollar government contracts? Sometimes, they use bribery. In fact, the World Bank estimates that corrupt payments total more than $1 trillion e

Maureen Cavanaugh: Traders and merchants spanning back to ancient times have often tried to sweeten a deal by greasing some palms. Bribery and kickbacks have a long tradition in business, some countries seem to think of them as part and parcel of the cost of doing business.

But when you bring this kind of corruption into the 21st century you begin to see multi-national corporations offering billions of dollars in bribe money to secure arms deals. It's a practice that is so disturbing that both U.S. law and international agreements prohibit it. Even so, the bribery continues.

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Guest

Lowell Bergman, correspondent and producer for FRONTLINE . Lowell is talking to us about his latest FRONTLINE documentary, Black Money.