Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Khadija Ismayilova spoke at the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting in Vancouver last week, describing the risks to whistleblowers and what we can do to encourage and protect them.

Oliver Bullough, Tom Burgis and Sarah Chayes, authors of three of the best books on global corruption, gather for a panel at the Annapolis Book Festival for a fascinating discussion about how the corrupt operate, often with impunity, and what can be done to slow the pace of looting.

Oliver Bullough joins the podcast again to discuss his latest book, out this week:  Butler to the World.  The book addresses how the UK went from a colonial power dominating the world to a service provider—or butler or perhaps consigliere—to the world’s oligarchs.

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post describes the sleaze and corruption that compromised the top ranks of the Seventh Fleet.

Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital describes the brazen fraud and violence of Putin’s Russia.

Robert Worth, a journalist previously based in Baghdad with the New York Times and author of A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil from Tahrir Square to ISIS, describes the deadly and intractable problem of corruption in Iraq. He discusses the role the United States and its pallets of cash played in this, but also the enforced sectarian apportionment of power—the Muhasasa—that ensures each group protects its fiefdom rather than acting in the best interest of the whole country.

Matt Sarnecki joins the podcast today.  Matt is a senior producer with the OCCRP and the director of a new documentary about the murders in Slovakia of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. The Killing of a Journalist explores the public outrage, the criminal investigation that was based in part on leaked phone records, and the political fall-out from this tragedy.

Today’s podcast is a recording of a talk given by Drew Sullivan of the OCCRP at the University of Maryland. Drew is the co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (the OCCRP), a global network of journalists working collaboratively to evaluate and mine enormous amounts of data to expose corruption. The OCCRP is also a past winner of the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting. Special thanks to the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland in the School of Public Policy and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism for letting us record the event.

Bill Browder joins the podcast again to talk about his fascinating new book, the many successes of the Global Magnitsky Act which he promoted with energy and ingenuity and where he is turning his attention now.

This week, Mary Lawlor joins the podcast to discuss her role as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and her determination that anti-corruption activists should be included as⁠—and offered the protection of⁠—human rights defenders. Read her recent report, At the heart of the struggle: Human rights defenders fight corruption.