Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Listen to the riveting first-hand story of a Unaoil executive who found himself at the center of a bribery scheme.

Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks” and featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, “Madoff:  Monster of Wall Street,” joins the podcast to talk about FTX.  Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Michael Forsythe, co-author with Walt Bogdanich of “When McKinsey Comes to Town”, joins the podcast to talk about McKinsey’s work in support of autocratic regimes, its rampant conflicts of interest and the distance between its stated values and its work on the ground. 

Diana Henriques describes Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, discusses how difficult it is to uncover fraud by those who prey on the trust of others and addresses the simple, consistent controls that saved some investors from losses. Diana is featured in the new Netflix series MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins the podcast to discuss her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, which examines 100 years of authoritarian rule. She describes the characteristics of a strongman and the strange virility cult surrounding these leaders before turning to the central role of corruption in the autocrat’s playbook. (This episode was originally published in November 2021.)

Reflecting on the year as it draws to a close, we note with great sadness the recent loss of sports journalist, author and inimitable soccer analyst, Grant Wahl. We’re replaying today our podcast with Grant from 2017.  He was generous with his time, happy to share his expertise and invariably good humored. He is missed.

As we near the end of the year, we asked nine experts in the field to provide us with their compliance predictions for 2023. Surprisingly, no prediction was duplicated.  We hope you enjoy these prognostications and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and all the very best in the year ahead!

Dan Kahn, former Chief of the FCPA Unit, joins the podcast to discuss the September Monaco Memo now that the compliance community has had some time to debate it.  Dan discusses the good news, and some concerns, associated with cooperation credit, voluntary disclosure, recidivist companies, monitors and ongoing concerns about personal devices and ephemeral apps.

Casey Michel with the Hudson Institute's Kleptocracy Initiative joins the podcast for a very lively discussion about his book, American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History. Casey discusses America’s role in the problem of global kleptocracy and shares some optimism about the path ahead. (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

Dr. Magnus Öhman of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) joins the podcast to discuss how corruption undermines free and fair elections. He discusses his recent publication: “Vote for Free: A Global Guide for Citizen Monitoring of Campaign Finance,” which provides an eight-step model for civil society organizations seeking to monitor campaign finance.