Politics has always been impure due to the scandals involved in it. Greed, self- importance, sex, money and power make the politicians choose a path which they never ever appreciate. It is not just a particular class of people or a particular country which is involved in such cases. Almost all the countries have experienced one such politician who was accused of something not everyone is proud of. These scandals and frauds happen all over the globe. Some of the most famous cases are:
[10] Teapot Dome:
In the American Political History, the Teapot Dome scandal is a very popular one and was during the time when Warren G. Harding was the President. Teapot Dome was an oil field situated in Wyoming and used by U.S. Navy. The scandal started as a simple case of bribery. In 1992, the Us Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall was accused of accepting a bribe of $404,000 as gifts from the oil company in return of some rights to them. The Wall Street Journal was the first one to publish about the bribes exposing Fall. In 1927, investigation on the case led to a hearing in Supreme Court, where the judge declared him guilty and sentenced a fine of $100,000 and prison for a year. The President, though not involved in the scandal directly, was criticized about the ineffective monitoring in his cabinet.
[9] Chappaquiddick Scandal:
This scandal is related to Edward M. ‘Ted’ Kennedy. On 18 July, 1969, he attended a party in Massachusetts on Chappaquiddick Island. After the party he left with Mary Jo Kopechne, who was just 29 years old and a specialist of American political campaigning. In the drive to home, the car collided with a bridge and they got drowned. Kennedy is an experienced swimmer and therefore escaped. He explained that couldn’t get her out of the water despite of trying very hard and she ended up dead. No one is yet sure about whether Edward extricated his own self from the car or it was a near death experience for him. He got a suspended jail stay for 2-months and his driver’s licence was extracted for a year.
[8] Jean Tiberi:
He was the mayor of Paris for six complete years and also a member of National Assembly, France. Tiberi and his wife – Xaviere Tiberi, both were accused in some scandals. In 1998, their apartment was searched on the order of a judge and a number of illegal guns were obtained from the place. Again in the year 2005, they did a fraud of registering more than 7000 voters. If you mistakenly characterise Xaviere as a supporting wife, then you must be aware that she was more belligerent out of these two as per the French Press.
[7]Silvio Berlusconi:
He was the Prime Minister, Italy and a cruise ship lounge singer earlier. He has been in limelight for tax frauds and bribery multiple times. He remained in power for almost 17 years. He was a playboy and his friend Libyan allegedly hosted and organised parties with many young women. He was caught with Patrizia D’Addario, who was an escort and gave away that the Prime Minister was his client three times before. In 2011, he was accused of having involved with an underage girl named Noemi Letizia and also a teenage belly-dancer at some nightclub named Karima El Mahroug. In April, 2011, he was summoned by the court to stand trial for hiring a minor as an escort.
[6] Iran-Contra Affair:
Ronald Reagan was a President of America and he announced Iran as part of ‘confederation of Terrorist states’ to American Bar Association on 8 July, 1985. Under his administration, the members were planning to sell Iran the weapons they demand and release US hostages held there in Lebanon by pro-Iranian groups. The profits from selling the weapons were sent to Nicaragua for aiding rebel forces named as Contras. After investing, it was found that the sale was planned and authorized by Robert McFarlane, who was the head of NSC. The President denied his involvement in the scandal and created an investigation team named Special Review Board. The team found him not guilty but his popularity was slumped.
[5]Wilbur Mills:
Mills studied constitutional law at Harvard and was a renowned member of the House of Representatives, US. He joined the House in 1939 served for 18 years till 1977 as the head of Ways and Means committee. He was in an open relationship with Fanne Foxe, who was a stripper from Argentinian. Mills was a married man for 40 years but on October 7, 1974 he was found with Foxe; she was in the back seat of his car and he was drunk and while driving, was stopped by U.S. Park Police. In one incident he was seen with his hands on her shoulder outside Pilgrim Theatre, Boston. These scandals forced him to resign himself from the chairman post of Ways and Means Committee and keep his distance from politics.
[4] Watergate Scandal:
This is again a very popular scandal from Washington D.C. On May 27, 1972, Richard Nixon’s re-elections were in jeopardy. His officials were found breaking in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in the Watergate Hotel. They planted bugs and stole their documents. They revisited the place to fix a bug that stopped working on June 17. A security guard contacted the Washington’s Police when he got hint of the incident and 5 of them were arrested. Nixon claimed that no one from the white house was involved in the break-in but later, some of their videos revealed him and showed that he himself authorized money to them for this Hunt. This made him to resign the presidency and he became the first and only President of US to resign.
[3] Chen Shui-bian:
The Taiwan’s President remained on his post for 8 years since 2000. After that his son-in-law resigned from his party stating alleged insider trading. His reputation was damaged severely that his approval rating were low to 5.8% as reported by China Post. His fall was shocking and he was deceived so badly that there was no looking up again. Later in the same year 2008, his son, daughter-in-law and his wife were accused for misappropriation of the political funds. The President himself was involved in this crime. He was accused for wiring a big amount of $20 million to various bank accounts with fake identities. Both, he and his wife were charged a fine of $15 million and sentenced prison life for 20 years.
[2] John Major:
The Prime Minister of UK was a member of the Conservative Party and this party was defeated in the year 1997 by the Labour Party. This was a result of the Major’s actions. He was the leader of the scandal-plagued association. Many of the party’s minister were the sitting government officials when the report about a big issue. The issue was that the Saddam Hussein owned a company of machine tools in UK named Matrix Churchill during his reign in the 1980s. This company sold weapons and their components to Iraq and this was reported in the year 1996. The report did not mention the prime minister’s name but he was supposedly blamed for being the leader of the party.
[1] Dmitry Medvedev:
The lower house of Parliament in Russia is called State Duma. In the p it has been criticized that President Dmitry Medvedev uses it as his rubber stamp for initiatives. In May 2010, a law was passes from the house related to ‘driving when you are drunk’. This law was passed by 440 votes of total 450 members of the house. But what the climax is that there were only 88 deputies there!! Ren TV news showed a video that the deputies who were present kept running from vacant seats to the remaining vacant seats and presses the voting buttons on the seats of absent deputies. By doing this vacant seat shifting, the deputies were able to vote nine times in those 20 seconds of casting the ballots. The video was uploaded on you-tube and the whole world was able to come across the Russian Parliamentary proceedings.
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