Some finder's fee!

The filthy rich get richer and filthier:

British investigators were ordered by the attorney-general Lord Goldsmith to conceal from international anti-bribery watchdogs the existence of payments totalling more than £1bn to a Saudi prince, the Guardian can disclose.

The money was paid into bank accounts controlled by Prince Bandar for his role in setting up BAE Systems with Britain's biggest ever arms deal. Details of the transfers to accounts in the US were discovered by officers from the Serious Fraud Office during its long-running investigation into BAE. But its inquiry was halted suddenly last December.

One billion pounds is a good deal more than $2 billion. That's some finder's fee!

So, if the Brits paid Bandar over $2 billion for BAE, one wonders how much we've paid him to set up the Halliburton's of this world.