Just 3.5% in kickbacks?! Man, those Navantia guys are tough...

What does it say about Venezuela that when I read this story about Spanish shipbuilder Navantia paying €42 million in kickbacks for the contract to build those eight...

Se perdieron esos reales…

What does it say about Venezuela that when I read this story about Spanish shipbuilder Navantia paying €42 million in kickbacks for the contract to build those eight Venezuelan navy ships (one of which, alas, already ran aground off the coast of Brazil) my first reaction was to think, “wow, remember never to sit down to play poker with those Navantia guys!”

3.5%?! That’s all?!!

Those guys are tough as nails!

I thought the going rate was more in the neighborhood of 10-15%, especially for big contracts like this.

In Spain, the big scandal concerns the €12 million that ended up in the pockets of Socialist Party bigwigs. The €30 million stolen by the sudaca counterparties is firmly in dog-bites-man territory.

Sure, it’s roughly 4,000 times as much money as Wilmer Ruperti is alleged to have paid Juan Carlos Caldera…but then, is anybody really surprised if a tiger has 4,000 times more stripes than a bunny rabbit?!

[HT: GEHA, on vacation!]