Kickback: Exposing the Global Corporate Bribery Network.

• Author: Montero, David
• Position: FURTHER READING

Journalist David Montero in his book takes a look at corporations that win contracts--not through merit--but through well-placed bribes.

The World Bank, he points out, estimates that multinational corporations pay hundreds of billions of dollars in bribes every year, and the perpetrators include many Fortune 500 companies.

The crimes have wide-ranging secondary effects, he argues, including poverty, environmental catastrophes and political instability.

Pharmaceutical companies and big oil are the most common modern-day culprits, but a few defense firms make it into the book's pages. Most notably, Lockheed...