Asif Zardari, Mr. 10 Percent and President of Pakistan?

Embezzling Pakistan's Presidency: Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, was known as "Mr. Ten Percent" for his long trail of kickbacks and corruption. Now he's in line to be Pakistan's next president.

In his youth as the son of a rich landowner, Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari was known as a polo-playing playboy who had his own disco built on his father's property. After wedding Benazir Bhutto in an arranged marriage, his illustriously corrupt career began: He was charged with the attempted murder of a British developer, on whose leg he and an accomplice were accused to have strapped a remote-controlled bomb before sending the guy into a bank to force him to withdraw $800,000.Zardari was imprisoned for almost three years then released in time to become an investment minister in his wife's cabinet, a post Bhutto created just for him, and a post both used to immense personal profit. Among the spoils: An $8 million, 355-acre estate in Surrrey, England, where Zardari frequented a pub he loved so much that, when he couldn't buy it, had an identical replica built in the mansion's basement. The property included an indoor swimming pool, a helipad, a stud farm, 220 acres of pasture and nine bedrooms Zardari decorated, for $1.5 million, with the help of two British interior decorators. That little deal pales in comparison with a promised $200 million payoff from Dassault Aviation, the French jet fighter manufacturer of Mirages, in exchange for a $4 billion deal with the Pakistani air force. Unfortunately for Zardari and Bhutto, that deal fell apart when, in 1996, Bhutto was booted out of government, twice, for corruption, and he was imprisoned again, for nine years, on charges including the murder of Bhutto's brother. In all Pakistani authorities the Bhutto-Zardari axis managed to embezzle somewhere in the range of $1.5 billion.

But Zardari's nickname stuck: "Mr. 10 Percent," for his reputation as an exacting reaper of kickbacks.