Introduction
Titan set up a joint venture with a government company in the West of Africa, in Benin, in 1998 to build a wireless telephone network. The firm hired a man as its local agent, who was known as a business adviser to Benin's president, Mathieu Kerekou.
From 1999 to December 2001, Titan paid more than $3.5 million to this agent, including $2 million that was falsely billed as consulting services but actually was used for the president's re-election campaign. In 2000, Titan demanded an increase from 5% to 20% in the fees it charged for supervising the project, but this was turned down by the state telecommunications office of Benin. One year later, during the preparations for the presidential elections held in March 2001, Titan began to make 'social payments' in Benin. Some of the money was used to reimburse the agent's purchase of campaign T-shirts and to pay for a $1,850 pair of earrings for the president's wife.
Through out this paper, we will try to understand why Titan was accused of bribery and what this accusation means.…
