Nigerians Pay Billions In Bribes — But Why?

Nigeria’s public officials are reportedly making billions of dollars from bribes each year.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal citing the National Statistics Bureau, in Nigeria $4.6 billion in bribes goes to public officials each year based on a purchasing power parity calculation.

What’s more, the study by the government agency found that 95 percent of Nigerians would pay a bribe if requested to do so. Of the government agencies, the study found the police were the most likely to get bribes. Police countered the findings, reportedly saying they are not corrupt. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported a Nigerian oil mogul was named as part of a bribery inquiry into the country’s ex-oil minister. The bribery scandals aren’t only happening in Nigeria, the Wall Street Journal points out in a report rounding up corruption news from around the globe. Russian and the U.S. also had reported cases this week.

On the money laundry front, the Wall Street Journal reported a fight against money laundering in India focusing on shell companies, which the government contends moves the bad money around. Authorities in the country are continuing to work on bringing cases to the courts, noted the report. Other money laundering cases include police in Israeli arresting the sixth person related to a case involving businessman Beny Steinmetz, the Filipino Central bank warning financial institutions to be compliant with money laundering rules in the country and reports of suspicious customers surfacing as the part of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia money laundering scandal. As for cybercrimes, the paper highlighted the ongoing FBI investigation into Russian’s hacking of the election in the U.S. According to the Wall Street Journal, a malware hacker is cooperating with Ukrainian authorities and is a witness for the FBI in the investigation. Meanwhile, Netflix fell prey to a hacker who leaked episodes after warning of the plan.