JUSTICE FOR SALE
Extortion is not limited to so-called traffic viola-tions. An estimated $449 million was paid in 2004 as bribes to university officials by those seeking admission. Similarly, those in need of medical care in 2004 paid an estimated $401 million under the table. It also has become standard practice to bribe judges. The same INDEM study concluded that $275 million was paid in bribes to “win justice in court.” (A joke is told about two judges who were each handed an envelope with $100,000 by the defen¬dant only to see the next day that the plaintiff had left each of them $150,000. When meeting to dis¬cuss how to handle the situation, the judges decided to return $50,000 to the plaintiff and then decide the case on its merits.)