China, Russia most likely to pay bribes

Transparency International says companies from China and Russia are seen as most likely to use bribery to secure foreign contracts.

The watchdog group's Bribe Payers Index released Wednesday shows the two countries at the bottom of a list of 28 of the world's leading economies, meaning that their companies are seen as the most likely to engage in bribery.

Firms from the Netherlands and Switzerland were seen as the least likely to use bribes, followed closely by Belgium, Germany and Japan. The U.S. placed 10th.

The survey asked 3,000 business executives how often firms they deal with from different countries engage in bribery. No country was seen as wholly clean, and the survey found companies were almost as likely to pay bribes to other businesses as to officials.