Bribe, Swindle or Steal

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.

Bektour Iskender, journalist, co-founder of Kloop and TED Fellow, joined me at TED2022 to discuss his investigative reporting in Kyrgyzstan and the impact that his team’s work had there.

This week, we’re listening in on remarks from Kenneth Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, at our annual TRACE Forum. He discusses recent changes in the DOJ’s approach to white collar crime, priorities for compliance teams, and the new KleptoCapture initiative.

This week, Kara Brockmeyer, partner in Debevoise & Plimpton’s Washington, D.C. office, discusses the impact of the U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Act on anti-corruption compliance and enforcement. This podcast was recorded at TRACE’s 2022 Forum, which brings together compliance professionals for meaningful discussions.

Brian Klaas, Associate Professor at University College London and host of the award-winning podcast “Power Corrupts,” joins us to discuss his book “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us”.  Brian describes research on who is drawn to positions of power and how power impacts us, including potentially re-wiring our brains.