United States Quotes

There is no single field of activity, not a single institution, free of the most brutal sort of corruption. Russia has bred a world-class mafia.

The American people might have a criminal syndicate running their government.

Most men think graft a sporadic evil, breaking out here and there, with no connection between outbreaks. I shared the same opinion, but very soon I discovered that the graft in the cities always leads to the graft in the State.

Most major criminals operating in this country do so because of relationships they have with politicians who allow them to operate.

In Mafia states government officials enrich themselves and their families and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own power…Top positions in some of the world’s most profitable illicit enterprises are no longer filled only by professional criminals; they now include senior government officials, legislators, spy chiefs, heads of police departments, military officers, and, in some extreme cases, even heads of state and their families.

Not all politicians have a nexus with Veerappan.

Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen.

About 25 years ago, I started out as a reporter covering politics. And that sort of just evolved into organized crime, because organized crime and politics were the same thing in Boston.

Corruption is the principle source of financing political parties..

The boss of all bosses operates like a shifty-eyed precinct captain on the make ... These are activities on would expect of a small-time ward heeler, not a figure of such influence and stature.

It is hard to imagine any single special interest trying to buy an office without a motive.

Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.

When you get to political machines that can control a state, then you're really into organized crime - almost. You're fighting a political mafia.

The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.

I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy.

We don't know what proportion of public funds is regularly lost to collusion and corruption. Is it 25 per cent? 30 per cent? We do know that a portion of these public funds are feeding organized crime.

American democracy is spoiled by people buying everything in sight and then selling and buying everything in sight, including our politicians.

Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.

It never fails to astonish me how cheaply a politician can be bought.

Political corruption is endemic all over this country, in some places worse than others, right? On crime, you have all the major American cities where the crime rates at different points in their histories, have spiked dramatically.

Wherever there's opportunity, the mafia will be there.

I don't know whether crime is dictating business or business is dictating crime.

President Johnson had a habit of throwing dollars at a question and the question would disappear.

There's an awful lot of corruption in Japanese business and politics, corruption of the sort that can make for great setting for a spy story.

Crime, money, power, drugs - are all linked.