ABSTRACT
The confessions made to Italian judicial investigators by T., whose outstanding career as a would-be middleman was abruptly interrupted by his arrest in 2009, offer a clear picture of how political processes and decision-making can be “endogenously” conditioned by expected opportunities for corruption in a hidden underworld where personal relations and values are shaped by prospects of illegal enrichment. T. describes his consistent initial investment in connections and the building of contacts, which can be particularly expensive when the middleman aspires to the highest levels of intermediation and must therefore satisfy potential partners’ secret tastes:
I wanted to meet President Berlusconi and therefore I had to bear considerable expenses in order to get to be one of his intimate acquaintances. Being aware of his interest in women I introduced girls to him telling him they were my friends, concealing the fact that I sometimes paid them. I asked him to introduce me to the person responsible at national level for civil defense, Guido Bertolaso, since I wanted a friend of mine, with whom I had reached a collaboration agreement, to have an opportunity to illustrate to him the qualities of his industrial group, with the prospect of obtaining future contracts. One evening President Berlusconi introduced me to Bertolaso […] . I want to state that the use of prostitutes and cocaine is related to my project of creating a network of connivance within the public administration, since at that time I believed that girls and cocaine were the key to success in high society. (Corriere della Sera, September 9, 2009)
