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Sarah Ferguson Caught in $750K Bribery Scandal

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Sarah Ferguson was caught on tape accepting cash from an undercover journalist in exchange for access to her ex husband, Prince Andrew, Britain's special representative for international trade and investment.

"Five hundred thousand pounds [approx $750,000] when you can, to me… [to] open doors," Ferguson, 50, says on videotape during a meeting at a swanky London apartment, according to the British tabloid News of the World, which also printed a transcript of the conversation.

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"Then you open up all the channels, whatever you need, whatever you want… We can do so much," she went on. "If you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you."

Ferguson, a former Weight Watchers spokeswoman, appears to ask the reporter, who is posing as an international tycoon, for $40,000 in cash, and $720,000 by wire transfer "if you want a deal with Andrew… and then you meet Andrew."

After a pile of money is show on a coffee tape, the duchess puts her head in her hands (it's unclear if she's smiling or crying), and then moments later, hauls away a black computer bag stuffed with the cash, which is described as a fee for "doing the big deal with Andrew."

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Ferguson says that Andrew was aware of the deal, but the newspaper says he was not.

"I will listen to the friendship talk between you two. And then I do it… You two talk. I listen. Then I activate," she said. "He meets the most amazing people. And he just throws them my way."

Ferguson wed the Duke of York, who is fourth in line to the throne, in 1986, but they split 10 years later. They are parents to two daughters, Beatrice, 21, and Eugenie, 20.

"He's so amazing," Ferguson says on the videotape. "We're the happiest divorced couple in the world."

The royal family was unavailable to comment.  Fergie said in a statement that she had money problems but "that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened. I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused."

Fergie has lost millions in business ventures (including the closing of her promotional firm, Hartmoor, last year, which she poured $2 million into), but still preferred to travel first class and in a chauffeur-driven Bentley.

Her $3 million contract with Weight Watchers expired in 2007, and according to the Times of London, she had to scale back her lavish 50th birthday party to a family meal because she couldn't afford it.

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