Corruption junkies might remember Karlheinz Schreiber, the backslapping little middleman at the centre of the Airbus affair, and who is currently fighting extradition to Germany.

Well, a one-time German politician has just claimed in court that Schreiber gave him a one-million-euro bribe to help ease the sale of some German armoured vehicles to the United States.

An excerpt from the Deutsch Welle story (forwarded by a friend):

A the start of his trial on separate tax evasion and corruption charges over an arms deal with Saudi Arabia, former German Junior Defense Minister Ludwig-Holger Pfahls admitted in court Tuesday to accepting bribes.

Pfahls, who served as state secretary for defense from 1987 to 1992 under then Chancellor Helmut Kohl, surprised the court in the southern city of Augsburg by acknowledging that he accepted about one million euros ($1.2 million) for facilitating the sale of armored vehicles to the United States.

The 62-year-old said the money was transferred to a Swiss bank account for him in 1990 by arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, who is currently fighting his own extradition to Germany from Canada.

"I cannot explain how this blunder came about," Pfahls, who is also a former head of the German domestic intelligence agency, told the court. "I somehow got caught up in things."

Bribes and gun-running

Pfahls is actually on trial over a separate affair. He is accused of taking nearly two million euros in bribes for the sale of 36 armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia in 1991, and failing to declare the earnings.

If you're really interested in this stuff, you should read The Last Amigo, by Stevie Cameron and Harvey Cashore -- if you haven't done so already.