The more recent twist involves employees, even top officials, of major league teams taking kickbacks from signing bonuses and contract buyouts to secure young players.
A special task force set up almost three years ago to investigate U.N. procurement activities has identified at least 20 major cases of fraud, kickbacks and malfeasance tainting a total of more than $630 million worth of contracts.
Sign up for the best of VICE, delivered to your inbox dAlso.
Local corruption is a major issue with ordinary citizens, but kickbacks and favoritism are widely acknowledged to be widespread at the highest levels of government, where the rewards can be much greater and prosecution much harder.
Prosecutors said that as an independent record promoter for major record labels, he provided cocaine and kickbacks to radio station executives who played his songs.
Judge Sergio Moro – who has overseen the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation into bribery and kickbacks at Petrobras and other major corporations – must now assess allegations that the Workers' party figurehead accepted 3.7m reais ($1.1m) in bribes.
A massive anti-corruption investigation known as Lavo Jato, or Car Wash, has brought down leading figures from all Brazil's major political parties for alleged involvement in kickbacks from the state-run oil company Petrobras.
On the videotape, Mr. Mery described himself as a major player in the collecting and distributing of kickbacks, according to Le Monde.
Of course, claims of corruption are rife in Mexico, and no one would dispute that kickbacks to law enforcement pose a major problem.
Another area of inquiry involved crimes committed by two of his employees: one added bogus surcharges to military shipments from Dubai to Baghdad; and another paid kickbacks to employees of KBR, a major defense contractor, to secure future business.
