Russian Entrepreneur Offers Bribe Delivery Service

[CVX]

For years the nuts and bolts of bribery have been the bane of many a Russian's life. In a country where corruption is often the only way, a clumsy attempt at passing a brown envelope has left many red-faced and floundering.

But now a Moscow-based entrepreneur has started a service that aims to put an end to the headache of how and where to grease a corrupt official's palm.

Advertising on the internet, the founder, who goes only by the name of Sergei, has started a bribe delivery service. It guarantees to pass on a customer's back-hander without risk or embarrassment.

Sergei offers his services along with an e-mail address: vzyatka@moscowmail.com. (Vzyatka is Russian for bribe.)

His typical fee is 50 per cent of the value of the bribe. Once a deal has been agreed a contract is drawn up between the client and Sergei's company for "courier services".

To avoid the risk of the delivery man being arrested, Sergei uses 14-year-old boys who are too young to be prosecuted under Russian law.

The bribe delivery service is especially attractive for Muscovites as it follows a number of high-profile stings in which police have arrested bribe-givers.

In one recent case a man faced a jail sentence for bribing traffic police - considered the most corrupt state employees in the country.

After another sting operation a ministry official is in jail on charges that he was given a Mercedes for providing information to businessmen about their rivals.

According to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sergei's method is to organise the passing of a bribe at the official's home or in the street to avoid undue embarrassment in the workplace.

He told the newspaper that he previously handled pay-offs to gangsters from businessmen who wanted to avoid the risk of being killed during the transaction.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.

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