Showing posts with label kleptocracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kleptocracy. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Want to revive the political center? Fight corruption.; The Washington Post, August 31, 2018

Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post;

Want to revive the political center? Fight corruption.


"Any serious anti-corruption, anti-fraud platform should also have an international angle, because the spread of corruption in the United States is part of a larger sickness that now afflicts the entire Western alliance. Jointly, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the rest of Europe — as well as Japan and Australia — are now locked in a real, life-and-death struggle against international kleptocracy. All of our political systems are now vulnerable to Russian and Chinese bribery and influence-buying. All of our online media is now the target of full-time political manipulation.

To preserve our democracies and maintain rule of law, we need to push back, as allies, using not just sanctions but also new laws limiting — or eliminating — the use of tax havens and the broader money-laundering toolkit."

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Trump risks US being seen as 'kleptocracy', says ex-ethics chief Walter Shaub; Guardian, July 31, 2017

David Smith, Guardian; Trump risks US being seen as 'kleptocracy', says ex-ethics chief Walter Shaub

"The former head of the US government ethics watchdog has warned that Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest put the country at risk of being seen as a “kleptocracy”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Walter Shaub, who quit this month as director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), condemned the president for using his hotels and other properties for government business in what is in effect a free advertising campaign.

“His actions create the appearance of profiting from the presidency, and the appearance here is everything because the demand I’m making is so much more than ‘have a clean heart’. It’s ‘Have a clean heart and act appropriately,’” Shaub said.

“The fact that we’re having to ask questions about whether he’s intentionally using the presidency for profit is bad enough because the appearance itself undermines confidence in government.”
He added: “It certainly risks people starting to refer to us as a kleptocracy. That’s a term people throw around fairly freely when they’re talking about Russia, fairly or unfairly, and we run the risk of getting branded the same way. America really should stand for more than that.”"