Persian Gold, usually bad. The consistent thing about the middle east is tyranny. Tyrants, with terrorism and confiscation, are able to amass vast wealth.
Tyrants are always surrounded by enemies. They have found that bribing various groups in an enemy government can paralyze that government. Bribing is elevated to an art form.
Democracies are especially vulnerable to bribes because many within a democracy are bribable and fairly invisible.
We can assume that many criticisms of a democracy from within that democracy are caused by bribes. Relatively harmless bribes (School superintendent to board member: “If you vote to raise taxes, I will hire your relatives”) are common.
Such payoffs are nowhere nearly as damaging as bribes from outside. (Shah/Emir/Prince to senator: “If you will vote to stop your country from drilling for oil in its own territory, I will deposit one hundred pounds of gold in your Swiss lockbox.”)
