Section: Kleptocracy Initiative (USA)
Kleptocracy Weekly: March 3, 2017
New from KI: Casey Michel examines how U.S.-based trusts are an increasingly popular option for hiding illicit assets; Gerald Knaus discussed Global Caviar Diplomacy – Azerbaijan, Europe, and corruption – at Hudson Institute recently. U.S. After a tip from a D.C. hotel worker, more than a dozen people in three states and four countries were...
Kleptocracy Daily: March 3, 2017
News Attorney General Jeff Sessions will recuse himself from any probe related to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. (WaPo) EU ambassadors decided to prolong asset freezes against Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych and 14 of his associates. (RFE/RL) Oregon lawmakers will hold a public hearing Monday on a bill...
Kleptocracy Daily: February 27, 2017
News The European Parliament is set to vote tomorrow for fully public registers disclosing beneficial ownership. (Financial Times) Capitol One has become the new focus of state and federal investigations of money laundering after the bank’s internal safeguards were called into question. (USA Today) Swiss prosecutors are investigating...
Kleptocracy Daily: February 24, 2017
News FinCEN found that 1 in 3 buyers who used anonymous companies for cash purchases of luxury property in leading cities had alarms raised about their financial dealings. (Financial Times) Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury extended luxury real estate anti-money laundering rules. (Mansion Global) The number of UK visas granted to wealthy investors has...
Kleptocracy Daily: February 22, 2017
News Corruption is an even bigger deterrent to Ukraine investors than war. (Bloomberg) China’s insurance industry has joined Xi Jinping’s war on corruption. (SCMP) The former head of China’s safety watchdog was jailed for graft. (Reuters) Features Killer, kleptocrat, genius, spy: the many myths of Vladimir Putin. (Guardian)...
Kleptocracy Daily: February 21, 2017
News British MPs voted to pass the Criminal Finances Bill, including a “Magnitsky Amendment” which would allow the government to freeze kleptocrats’ assets. MPs also want more transparency in overseas territories, many of which are notorious secrecy jurisdictions. (Justice for Magnitsky campaign, Bloomberg) An Austrian court ruled that...
Kleptocracy Weekly: February 17, 2017
Tackling Kleptocracy: AEI’s Michael Rubin examines the true costs of global corruption with Ben Judah’s recent report for KI, The Kleptocracy Curse. (Commentary) United States The Clearing House, which represents major U.S. banks, published a report recommending an overhaul of anti-money laundering rules and the publication of...
Kleptocracy Daily: February 8, 2017
News Russian anti-graft activist Alexey Navalny was convicted of embezzling timberin a retrial, barring him from running for president in 2018. (BBC) U.S. states’ plans to change beneficial ownership rules are “more of a political response than an effective response.” (Bloomberg) Faced with an unpredictable U.S. president, foreign countries...
Kleptocracy Daily: January 31, 2017
Office Space: Who Really Owns Real Estate Leased by the U.S. Government?: Natalie Duffy highlights a new report which found it impossible to identify the true owners of one third of the government’s “high security” leases – because of anonymous companies. News Deutsche Bank was fined $630 million for its role in the $10 billion Russian...
Kleptocracy Weekly: January 27, 2017
Fueling Kleptocracy: Transparency in the Extractives Industry: Nate Sibley on how an imminent move to repeal a law requiring U.S. oil, gas, and mining firms to report payments to foreign governments would play into the hands of kleptocrats. Practicing and Prosecuting Foreign Corruption: Casey Michel talks to Steve Levine about the Foreign Corrupt...
