Welcome to Kleptocracy, Hudson Institute’s newsletter on how corruption is reshaping global politics and security. Lots going on this week, so keep scrolling for all the latest news, research and analysis from around the world.
💸NEW FROM KI
🎧Making a Killing #27: America’s Real Estate Laundromat | Hudson Institute
Casey speaks with Lakshmi Kumar, policy director at Global Financial Integrity, about the damaging – and deadly – consequences of money laundering in American real estate. For more astonishing facts and figures check out GFI’s recent report, Acres of Money Laundering.
🗞️NEWS
Blatter and Platini face fraud charges in Fifa corruption probe | The former heads of world and European football were indicted by Swiss authorities over a $2m payment. | Financial Times
Ransomware HQ: Moscow’s Tallest Tower Is a Cybercriminal Cash Machine | One of the city’s most prestigious buildings houses companies offering services to hackers. | Bloomberg
Myanmar’s missing millions | The IMF transferred $372 million to help the country fight Covid, days before the military coup. No-one can figure out where the funds have gone. | The Diplomat
Huawei paid Democratic powerbroker Podesta $1 million to lobby | The amount is double what the former US official and prominent lobbyist has revealed publicly. | Reuters
Chinese fugitive who cheated thousands charged in US with visa fraud | Shi Jianxiang is wanted by Beijing for an alleged $6.3 billion fraud, but was caught by US authorities promoting cryptocurrency in Las Vegas. | Caixin Global
Why are foreign tech firms pulling out of China? | Beijing is increasingly trying to control how firms collect and store data. | Associated Press
Chinese-American money laundering kingpin sentenced to 15 years | Xizhi Li’s success attracted El Chapo, but trying to bribe an undercover DEA agent proved his downfall. | OCCRP
Mexican judge jails ex-Pemex boss at center of corruption case | The former state oil company CEO was extradited from Spain last year, accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes. | Reuters
Alisher Usmanov to be re-elected president of International Fencing Federation | The Russian oligarch is considered close to Putin and has faced calls for sanctions. | Inside the Games
Federal Election Commission allows foreign funding for US referendum campaigns | Foreigner entities are banned from funding US candidates, but not certain other types of ballots. | Axios
Congress passes RENACER Act targeting Nicaragua’s Ortega | Beyond punishing electoral malpractice, the law requires investigations of the regime’s corruption. | Reuters
“Trade with the United States is a privilege, not a right. And I am here to tell Ortega and Murillo - you murderous dictators, you treacherous thugs, you will no longer have a free pass to enrich yourselves. Now tyrants around the world are watching.”
Congress unveils bipartisan bill to fight foreign bribery | The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act would effectively extend the FCPA principle to criminalize acceptance of bribes from US companies by foreign officials. | Transparency International US
Bipartisan bill would modernize FARA filings | The FARM Act would update and standardize the ad-hoc, antiquated system for disclosing foreign lobbying efforts. | Axios
Latvian authorities confiscate property worth €250k in Magnitsky case | The funds are allegedly linked to the Kluyev crime gang that orchestrated the tax fraud he uncovered. | OCCRP
Iran leader’s office took £100,000 grant from UK taxpayers | The Islamic Centre of England accepted funds through the Covid jobs retention scheme. | The Times
📖RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
COP26: Is corruption on the agenda? | Monica Guy, Basel Institute
“If there is one thing that will scupper efforts to address the climate crisis, it is corruption. Yet corruption is strangely missing from the conversation.”
💬How money laundering is inflating Canadian real estate | Author Sam Cooper explains how corruption and capital flight from China is impacting Vancouver house prices. | Better Dwelling
Ending the ‘rule of thieves’: Maia Sandu and the fight against corruption in Moldova The graft-busting president will need more than a parliamentary majority to effect lasting reforms. | Dorina Baltag & Isabell Burmester, LSE Blogs
Time to act on Bosnia’s existential threat | The US and EU must stop making concessions to to Serbian secessionist forces backed by Russia - and clamp down on their corruption instead. | Majda Ruge, Foreign Policy
Renewing Magnitsky: The best weapon against an emerging security threat | Katharine Beamer, The Hill
“Global Magnitsky works. I firmly believe that the United States providing a consequence for such behavior in defense of our national interest in a tangible, serious, public way empowered citizens in both places I served to defend theirs.”