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Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff.
Alan Greenspan
BACKGROUND
No one knows when a government official was first bribed, but as far back as 1754 B.C. the Code of Hammurabi prohibited the practice. As for the U.S., the first Congress passed the Federal Crimes Act which prohibited some forms of Bribery. Traditionally bribery laws around the globe looked inward – at the subordination of domestic officials. Virtually no attention was paid to another form of bribery – the citizens of one country bribing the officials of another to obtain business or other improper benefit. Indeed, such practice was not only ignored, but often condoned by granting tax deductions for such payments.