

Bribe, Swindle or Steal
Alexandra Wrage
Alexandra Wrage, president of TRACE, interviews luminaries in the field of financial crime, including bribery, fraud, money-laundering, insider trading and sanctions. Each week, Alexandra and her guests will discuss who commits “white collar crime”, how it works and what is being done to stop it.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 17, 2024 • 24min
Transparency International's New Chair: François Valérian
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.

Jan 10, 2024 • 43min
2023 FCPA Year in Review
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.

Jan 3, 2024 • 24min
Pegasus and Compliance in the Age of Cyber Intelligence
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

Jan 3, 2024 • 24min
China's Clandestine Police Stations
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

Jan 3, 2024 • 23min
Sam Bankman-Fried: Crypto's Madoff?
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. This podcast originally aired onJanuary 25, 2023.

Jan 3, 2024 • 19min
The Panama Papers: Six Years Later
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

Jan 3, 2024 • 27min
"Iceland's Secret: The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con"
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

Dec 27, 2023 • 29min
“When McKinsey Comes to Town”
Michael Forsythe, co-author of 'When McKinsey Comes to Town', discusses McKinsey's work in autocratic regimes, conflicts of interest, the disconnect between their stated values and practices, corruption in South Africa, and potential solutions to prevent misuse of consulting firm's talents.

Dec 20, 2023 • 25min
“White Collar Crime Explained”
Randall Eliason talks about extortion, conspiracy, cover-up crimes and plea bargains – topics covered in his excellent new 24 lecture course available through Great Courses. He also takes us through some examples from recent headlines. This episode originally aired on September 29, 2020.

Dec 13, 2023 • 22min
Repression Across Borders
Yana Gorokhovskaia of Freedom House joins the podcast to talk about transnational repression, the increasingly common abuse and intimidation by states of their citizens living abroad. Yana discusses Jamal Khashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Roman Protasevich, whose plane was forced to land in Belarus where he is still being held, but also refers to the hundreds of other cases that don’t make the news. Freedom House has released an excellent report on this problem that can be found at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression. This episode originally aired January 5, 2022.