Mani pulite

Mani pulite (pronounced [ˈmaːni puˈliːte], Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called "First Republic", resulting in the disappearance of many political parties. Some politicians and industry leaders committed suicide after their crimes were exposed. Antonio Di Pietro was the main judicial figure in charge of the operation.

In some accounts, as many as 5,000 public figures fell under suspicion. At one point, more than half of the members of the Italian Parliament were under indictment. More than 400 city and town councils were dissolved because of corruption charges. The estimated value of bribes paid annually in the 1980s by Italian and foreign companies bidding for large government contracts reached 4 billion dollars (6.5 trillion lire).

The corrupt system uncovered by these investigations was usually referred to as Tangentopoli (Italian pronunciation: [tandʒenˈtɔːpoli]). The term derives from tangente, which means kickback and in this context refers to kickbacks given for public works contracts, and poli meaning city; it is thus sometimes translated as "Bribesville" or "Kickback City."

Tangentopoli began on 17 February 1992 when judge Antonio Di Pietro had Mario Chiesa, a member of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), arrested for accepting a bribe from a Milan cleaning firm. The PSI distanced themselves from Chiesa, with PSI leader Bettino Craxi calling him mariuolo, or "villain", a "wild splinter" of the otherwise clean party. Upset over this treatment by his former colleagues, Chiesa began to give information about corruption implicating them. This marked the beginning of the mani pulite investigation; news of political corruption began spreading in the press.

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