CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

Elite Cartels 97
The rapid rise in oil prices that began in that year spurred laws aimed
at energy conservation, the development of alternative energy sources
(particularly nuclear), and limiting price increases. All were threats to
petroleum refiners and marketers, and Unione Petrolifera, their business
association, went on the offensive by paying bribes (tangenti) to the
governing parties. ENEL, the state electricity combine, engaged in similar
activities. Some of that money reached party treasuries, but more
stayed with party leaders and top bureaucrats.
While investigations revealed bribery reaching higher into the party and
state hierarchies than many had realized, the scandal might have been
‘‘more of the same, only more so’’ had it not been for the reform response.
In 1974 Law number 195 (also boosted by revelations of bribery by
Lockheed, which sought to sell C-130 military transports to Italy) outlawed
contributions from public-sector corporations to parties and instituted
a new combination of public funding and disclosure of private
contributions. But the public funding was vastly inadequate, voluntary
private contributions were low, as always, and disclosure was widely
ignored. Moreover, the law did not change Italy’s longstanding policy
of parliamentary immunity to criminal prosecution. Deprived of legitimate
funds from public corporations, faced with insufficient public and
private contributions, and guaranteed immunity, party and faction leaders
turned to illicit funding. Many observers date the expansion and
increasing organization of corruption in Italy from this legislation (Hine,
1995: 185–186, 191; Rhodes, 1997: 56–65; Golden and Chang, 2001:
595–597; Pujas and Rhodes, 2002: 745; Golden, 2003: 208–209).
The activities of Michele Sindona and the P2 Masonic Lodge in the
1970s and early 1980s revealed extensive links between corruption and
violence, implicating not only organized crime but also terror cells and
state security forces. Sindona was an international private banker whose
fortune was built partially upon political bribery and shady capital, and
partly upon his role as the Vatican’s banker. When his empire collapsed in
1978 he was jailed and his businesses went into liquidation. The official
overseeing that process was murdered, however, and Sindona himself
died in prison under suspicious circumstances – a suicide, according to
security forces. A series of political murders during the late 1970s raised
further suspicions, as did investigations of the P2 Masonic Lodge, a
largely secret body whose membership included not only police, security,
and party officials, but also suspected fascists. P2 was implicated in the
1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi’s financial conglomerate,
which also involved suspicious deaths and had financial repercussions
reaching from London to the Vatican. Subsequent tax scandals, the
murder of an investigating journalist, and oil-related bribery and