Bribe, Swindle or Steal

In honor of the extraordinarily courageous and principled life of Alexei Navalny, first poisoned with Novichuk and killed today in Polar Wolf prison, we are reposting our 2021 conversation with his chief of staff, Leonid Volkov. Leonid Volkov joins the podcast to talk about Putin's obsessive campaign against Navalny, who was first poisoned with Novichok and later imprisoned. Volkov also discusses the deep roots of corruption in Russia and how the west can support Russians determined to end the looting of their country.

Valerie Salembier, former publisher of Harper’s Bazaar and founder of The Authentics Foundation, discusses the true cost of counterfeit luxury items: child labor, trafficked labor and organized crime. This episode originally aired on July 3, 2018.

Investigative journalist Erlend Ofte Arntsen of Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang joins the podcast to discuss his work on the Tinder Swindler story, adapted into a Netflix documentary. Erlend and his colleagues broke the story of Shimon Hayut, an Israeli con man who found women on the dating app, impressed them with private jets and bodyguards, concocted stories about being in great personal danger and then drained their bank accounts and left them with extraordinary credit card debt.  This episode originally aired on February 15, 2022.

Tom Firestone, a partner with Squire Patton Boggs in Washington, discusses the new US Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA).  Tom’s perspective is especially interesting as he previously served as the Legal Adviser at the US Embassy in Moscow dealing with financial crime there and, in 2018, he wrote an article on what was needed to tackle the demand side of bribery.

François Valérian joins the podcast to discuss the platform on which he ran in TI's recent election, his priorities and his thoughts on the state of global anti-corruption efforts.

Dan Kahn, former Chief of the DOJ’s FCPA unit and current partner with Davis Polk, talks us through the anti-corruption enforcement actions, trends and highlights of 2023.

Chaim Gelfand, Vice President, Compliance, at NSO Group joins the podcast to talk about managing compliance for a product that has, baked into its design, complex privacy, corruption and human rights implications. Because of the controversial nature of spyware, we will hear from journalist Khadija Ismayilova next week about the allegation that spyware was installed on her cell phone and her concerns about abuse of the technology. Podcast originally aired: March 8, 2023

Laura Harth with Safeguard Defenders joins the podcast to talk about the more than 50 illegal Chinese police stations operating around the world, including in the United States and Canada. These violate both the sovereignty of the inadvertent ‘host’ countries and the rights of the Chinese citizens abroad who are stalked and coerced to comply with government demands to return to China or risk the persecution of their families. Laura discusses her organization’s excellent report 110 Overseas:  Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. (The title is based on the emergency number for the police in China - 110.)  Podcast originally aired: February 8, 2023

Kevin G. Hall, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project's North America editor, reflects on how the Panama Papers have shaped investigative journalism over the past six years and the biggest challenges journalists face today. Podcast originally aired: April 26, 2023

Jared Bibler joins the podcast to discuss his lively book about the complete meltdown of Iceland's banking sector and, as a result, its economy. It was a brazen scheme equal in size to three Enrons and, although it happened in 2008, it remains a timely cautionary tale for the banking sector and regulators today. Podcast originally aired: April 12, 2023