America is not an exception when it comes to countries that have corrupt politicians who are consistently violating their position and the law for private gain, and if you are interested to see who are the most corrupt politicians in US history, you are in the right place.
Now before we move on, let’s just clarify what falls under the term corruption. As you may, or may not know, there are many different forms of corruption starting from bribery, embezzlement, cronyism, extortion, patronage, parochialism to nepotism among other types. Many politicians and people who have similar job positions are often using the law to fill their bank accounts while they still can. However, since the laws vary from one country to another, it is often difficult to distinguish legal from illegal.
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There are many ways of how a corrupted country is hampering the economic development. Corruption is stealing the wealth of the nation, and it is impoverishing its people. The economic growth rate is depending on the corruption rate, the higher the corruption rate is in one country, the lower its economic growth will be. Corruption affects one country not only by reducing the investment and the economic growth as we already mentioned, but also by providing poor maintenance of public infrastructure and by reducing foreign direct investment.
The United States had 45 presidents including the newly elected Donald Trump. Not all of them were perfect, and not all of them contributed to the country as they promised during their presidential campaigns. There are a lot of presidents for whom it wasn’t obvious to the ordinary people that they were corrupted, or there was simply no evidence of their corruption. If you want to learn more about corrupted presidents, make sure to read our list of Most Corrupt US Presidents in History. The most common frauds all of the politicians and the presidents made were bribery, extortion, and racketeering.
While creating our list of most corrupt politicians in US history, we used Real Clear History, CNBC, and Warped Speed as our sources to see what are the most corrupted politicians. In order to create our list, after we collected the information from our sources, we took the politicians that were mentioned the most times in our sources. After we finished this step, we sorted our list by the number of mentions. Now let’s get down to the list and see who are the most corrupt politicians in US history.
10. Boss Tweed
Boss Tweed was the New York’s corruption king. During the years of corruption, his associates established a network of corruption. This system later became known among people as the “Tweed Ring.” Even though he wasn’t a lawyer, Tweed opened a law office back in 1860, and he used it for receiving large payments for his ‘legal services’ from corporations. Shortly after he opened the office, he gathered an insane amount of illegal cash, and he used it to buy acres of Manhattan’s real estate. Since that wasn’t enough to spend his fortune, he started wearing large diamonds attached to his shirt. Eight years later, in 1868, Tweed was elected to the New York State Senate, and he officially started to drain the city. When the citizens of New York finally realized what he was doing to the city and their money, they began to support the efforts to oust him. In 1873, Tweed was convinced for forgery and larceny, but he was released two years later. However, shortly after his release, the New York State sued him in order to try and recover some of the money he embezzled, and he was arrested again.
9. Ray Blanton
In 2012, Ray Blanton, the number 9 on the list of most corrupt politicians in US history was among the top ten corrupt politicians of all time. Back in 1975, Blanton was elected to be the Governor but, he was under a lot of pressure because he pardoned a murderer who killed two people. Shortly after the pardon, it was found out that the father of the killer was a county chairman for Blanton. When the re-election time came, Blanton knew he wouldn’t be elected, so he decided not to run again. In the meantime, while the re-elections were near the end, the FBI arrested three state employees of which two were from Blanton’s office. The FBI charged them with extortion and conspiracy to sell paroles, pardons, and commutations. However, the most serious act of corruption that Ray Blanton did was when he pardoned 24 murderers and 28 prisoners in exchange for money. Marie Ragghianti tried to tell the authorities about the crime, but she was fired and sued by Blanton for reinstatement. There is a book for this story as well as a movie called “Marie.”
8. Budd Dwyer
Budd Dwyer was a Republican politician from Pennsylvania and from 1965 to 1970, he was a member of the state House of Representatives. The following decade of his life, Budd Dwyer spent in the state Senate. He was elected to be the state Treasurer, and he held the spot until he committed suicide. Dwyer committed suicide just a day before his sentence hearing at the federal court. He was found guilty of mail fraud, interstate transportation, racketeering, bribery and taking $300,000 from a computer company in campaign donations in exchange for $4 million state contract. On January 22, while the TV cameras were rolling and the reporters were watching him during a press conference, he pulled out a gun out of an envelope and took his life.
7. Huey Long
From 1928 to 1932, Huey Long that ranks 7th on our list of most corrupt politicians in US history, who is also known as Louisiana’s “Kingfish” served as Governor. During his time as a Governor, he pushed through a public works program on an abnormal scale. But, in order to do it, he used political patronage and different treats like buying votes from people. In 1930, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and a year before that, in 1929, he wanted to increase the taxes on the oil production, but he faced a big confrontation by the opposition in the state Congress. He was charged with bribery, gross misconduct, and corruption, but he managed to get two-thirds of the Senate to sign a document which is against any charges regardless of the evidence. Since two-thirds were enough to help him get away with it, he won, and those people from the Congress who signed the document were given cash, state jobs, and other rewards. In 1934, Long gained such control of Louisiana state government that he had the power to choose all of the state employees. One month after he announced his candidacy for president, in September 1935, he was shot in the Louisiana Capitol.
6. Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew, the number 6 on our list of most corrupt politicians in US history was a Republican who served as Vice President from January 1969 until October 1973 under President Richard Nixon. In October, Spiro Agnew resigned due to unrelated issues to the Watergate scandal. Agnew was the second vice president of the United States to resign; the first was John Calhoun who left back in 1832. When President Nixon won the re-elections, the U.S. Attorney investigation targeted Spiro Agnew for bribery, tax fraud, extortion and conspiracy that was related to his political career in Maryland. Agnew was charged with accepting bribes of more than $100,000, but after that, he decided not to face trial and to resign, he got three years on probation and was fined $10,000. However, when later, in 1981 the civil court found out that Spiro Agnew accepted $147,000 in bribes while he was a governor of Maryland and he received $17,500 while he was a vice president, he had to reimburse the state $268,000.
5. Carroll Hubbard
One of the most corrupt politicians in US history is Carroll Hubbard. From 1969 until 1974, Carroll Hubbard served in the Kentucky Senate before he won the election to be in the U.S. House of Representatives in the state’s 1st District. Even though he failed to become the Governor, he was re-elected even six times to the House of Representatives. Carroll Hubbard was convicted of misusing government property as part of the 1992 Rubbergate House Banking Scandal. The scandal was because the members of the House of Representatives overdrawn their accounts. His wife was also on probation for five years for using the congressman’s aides for her run for Congress. In order to reduce his punishment, Carroll used to work as an FBI informant under the name “Elmer Fudd,” but after some time he was proved to be entirely useless to the agency. In 1994, Carroll was sentenced to three years in federal prison and a $153,794 fine for theft, obstruction of justice and conversion of federal property.
4. George Ryan
From 1999 until 2003, George Ryan, the next one on the list of most corrupt politicians in US history served in Illinois as the Republican Governor. The first investigations into George began back in 1994 when he was still working as Illinois Secretary of State which later became known as a license-for-bribes scandal. In the same year, 1994, a car exploded in Milwaukee and killed six people. Shortly after that, the investigators found out that the driver, who doesn’t speak English, probably used a bribe to get his license. Since this was probably the case, the investigation moved into the sale of drivers licenses for money. Ryan tried to stop the inquiry, but eight years after that it was revealed that the secretary of state’s office where he worked has been giving licenses for bribes to unqualified drivers. In December 2003, Ryan was indicted along with many other employees for money laundering, racketeering, bribery, extortion and tax fraud among other things. On July 3, 2013, he was released from the federal prison.
3. James Traficant
James Traficant was serving as a nine-term Democrat in Ohio from 1985 to 2002, and he was known as unconventional congressmen who is willing to say whatever he has in mind. Back in 2002, a week after the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct recommended to kick James Traficant from the Congress; he was ousted with a 420-1 vote. Since the Civil War, he is only the second member of the House that has been removed; the first member was Michael Mayers, and he was ousted back in 1980 for taking bribes. James Traficant, on the other hand, was convinced with even 10 felonies including racketeering, tax evasion, and bribery. He claimed he was unfairly targeted by the federal prosecutors and said: “I’ll go to jail before I resign and admit to something I didn’t do.” He was released from federal prison on September 2, 2009.
2. Edwin Edwards
From 1972 to 1996, Edwin Edwards, that ranks second on our list of most corrupt politicians in US history, was serving four terms as Democratic governor of Louisiana. There are accusations of impropriety since the beginning of his career, but despite that, a former associate of his claims that he was involved in a few more corrupt practices along with Louisiana agency posts and accepting money from the South Korean rice broker while he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. But, in 1997, the FBI agents raided Edwin’s house and seized records along with $400,000 in cash. The FBI monitored his calls, and there were more than 1,500 hours of telephone conversations which are proving his involvement in extortion payments from businessmen. One year later, in 1998, he was charged for 17 out of 26 counts of extortion, racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud.
1. Randy “Duke” Cunningham
During the Vietnam War, Randy “Duke” Cunningham was a decorated Navy fighter pilot who later, from 1991 to 2005, was the Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives representing San Diego. In November 2005, Randy resigned from the Congress in disgrace. He was found guilty for taking bribes, and he admitted that he took more than $2.4 million. This amount is the highest known amount that a congressman has ever taken in exchange for government business from at least three defenses. Randy “Duke” Cunningham didn’t know how to save, so he used the money to buy extravagant things like a yacht, mansion, suburban-D.C. condominium and a Rolls Royce. On March 3, 2006, Randy was sentenced to pay $1.8 million in restitution and eight years in federal prison, making him the the first among the most corrupt politicians in US history.
