“Some business owners would call the offices of local politicians to ask where they should drop off the sacks of bribery money. Agreements were reached over cocktails at nightclubs to determine who was to receive concessions for services like garbage collection in the new developments, circumventing the public bidding process — in exchange for small contributions to the local town-hall mafia. In return for the permits to build oceanfront dream houses, a luxury apartment would occasionally fall into the lap of an official who had signed the papers assigning the land to the developer.”
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