In Italy, Going Rate for a Murder Acquittal: $340G

Iovine also turned in one of his lawyers.

Judges in Naples accepted bribes to acquit a Camorra boss of murders he had confessed to carrying out, according to the boss in question, who is now an informant.

"There was a whole system set up in the court in Naples. Three times the clan paid to ensure an acquittal," Antonio Iovine, the informant, told anti-mafia judges this past week in testimony, adding that each murder acquittal cost around $340,000.



Iovine had been one of the four Camorra boss of the Casalesi clan. Known as O'Ninno, "The Baby," due to his youthful face and swift climb up the ladder, the ex-boss had been jailed for life following a major trial in 2008. He began working with anti-Mafia prosecutors.

Iovine, 49, reportedly led the business side of the clan's activities.

The Casalesi clan has been the subject of exclusive stories written for this blog by our roving correspondent Charles DeLucca.
Iovine had been arrested in 2010 after 14 years on the run (in 2008, he was tried in absentia).

In debriefings, Iovine also turned in his own lawyer, Michele Santonastaso, who had sought large amounts of money with which to bribe his client's way out of prison at the appeal stage.

The head of the Naples' appeal court, Pietro Lignola, previously overturned a life sentence against Iovine, and may have been the official the lawyer was planning to bribe, but Iovine couldn't say with certainty.

According to an AP report, Lignola, who has since retired, denied the accusations, telling the Corriere della Sera daily that if investigators "want to look into my affairs, no problem."

"They'll see I never took a penny," he said."