Word: moneyed
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...Lots of business is secured and done in the developing world by nations and companies that adopt a so-called pragmatic tolerance of corruption," Valerian says. "When contracts are signed and money is made it benefits everyone - except local publics...
...report says that Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of Equatorial Guinea's president, relied on American lawyers, bankers and real estate agents to bring a total of $110 million in suspected dirty money into the U.S. via a complex system of shell accounts. The report also described how Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for nearly 42 years until his death last June, transferred $18 million into a U.S. account with the help of an American lobbyist. Similarly, the ex-wife of former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar is alleged to have helped shift $40 million into U.S. banks...
...cases in the report reflect, the objective of the vast majority of tainted money transfers is the self-enrichment of corrupt officials who've pilfered public funds, not terrorism. And that's clear outside the U.S., as well. In France, Transparency International has brought a case against three African leaders - Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, Equatorial Guinea's Obiang and Bongo's estate in Gabon - claiming they allegedly used public funds to purchase around $200 million in French properties for themselves. A group of Cameroonian nationals based in France has also lodged a lawsuit in Paris accusing Cameroon President Paul...
...significant legal hurdles in trying to reclaim public assets suspected of being stolen by political leaders. Last month, a Swiss court ordered $4.6 million in frozen accounts to be returned to former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier after his family appealed a lower court's decision to turn the money over to charities, arguing the statute of limitations on any purported wrong-doing had expired. Moreover, despite a 2005 U.N. convention setting legal requirements for fighting corruption, Valerian says many Western countries have been slow to apply the measures and tend to view corruption in the developing nations they deal...
...That's because the law itself created the means for the PEPs in the Senate investigation to gain that access. The Patriot Act made it illegal for individuals or businesses in the U.S. to accept money generated by corruption abroad, deeming it as being complicit to money laundering. But in doing so, the law exempted hedge funds, realtors and escrow agents, and made it possible for foreign officials to use American lobbyists, lawyers and university officials to get around the money laundering...