Don't blink.
"Venice mayor arrested in corruption scandal" Associated Press June 05, 2014
VENICE — The mayor of Venice and more than 30 other people were arrested Wednesday in a sweeping corruption scandal in which politicians are accused of financing election campaigns with some $34 million in bribes from the consortium building underwater barriers to protect the lagoon city from flooding.
One of a series of bribery investigations into major public works projects in Italy, the web of alleged bribery revealed in Venice has many of the same characteristics as Italy’s ‘‘Kickback City’’ scandal of 20 years ago that toppled an entire political class.
The head of the consortium building the so-called Moses barriers was placed under house arrest last year in an earlier phase of the investigation. He, along with others, created a slush fund abroad that was used to bribe politicians, who then used the money for election campaigns as well as personal gain, prosecutor Carlo Nordio said.
The illicit funding was at the city, regional, and national level, prosecutors said.
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