He agreed that no company could conduct business in Russia without paying kickbacks, bribes or making "donations."

The commission is also exploring whether agents used financial advisers to recruit potential clients and then paid them kickbacks.

Then, he said, the opportunities for vendors to pay kickbacks and bribes would be reduced.

The doctors received checks from Medicaid and paid kickbacks to the clinic operators, he said.

Other practices under investigation, such as paying kickbacks to party leaders in return for state jobs, are clearly illegal, officials said.

More than a dozen current and former employees have been charged with conspiracy to pay kickbacks to doctors.

He said the company had not paid kickbacks and suggested that such records may represent "loans," but declined to provide further details.

To give buyers an incentive to pay kickbacks, Iraq would have to underprice its oil.

Sources said they were accused of paying kickbacks to politicians to obtain public contracts.

"We don't pay kickbacks, and in the past, other trucks got unloaded ahead of us."