Bribe, Swindle Or Steal

In light of recent news about Leonard Glenn Francis' escape from house arrest ahead of his U.S. sentencing, we're revisiting our episode with Doyle Hodges, Commander, USN, ret., and Stephen Wrage, Professor, U.S. Naval Academy. They describe how "Fat Leonard" of Glenn Defense Marine Asia organized and executed a scheme that corrupted at least 30 officers and compromised over 400 others.

International sports expert, Declan Hill, returns to the podcast to discuss the FIFA trial that concluded in late December and the outlook for meaningful reform.

Freelance journalist Nicolas Niarchos joins the podcast to discuss his excellent piece in the New Yorker: The Dark Side of Congo’s Cobalt Rush. He also describes his recent incarceration and that of his Congolese colleague, Jeef Kazadi, during their ongoing investigation in the DRC.

Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness and author of Very Bad People: The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption, joins the podcast to discuss the early days of his Global Witness investigations, how their efforts gained momentum and where we should be focusing our attention next.

Paul Holden of Shadow World Investigations joins the podcast to discuss the South African Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture (“Zondo Commission”).  He describes the extensive corruption and money-laundering enabled by banks and international corporations and makes a prediction about whether the Gupta brothers, recently arrested in Dubai, will be extradited to South Africa.

At the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting award ceremony last month, former prosecutor and National Observer columnist Sandy Garossino led a conversation with ICIJ’s Spencer Woodman, Bellingcat’s Aric Toler, and 2022 Prize winners Hans Peterson Hammer of Göteborgs-Posten and Lilia Saúl Rodriguez of the OCCRP. They discuss the evolution, impact and future of cross-border collaborative investigative journalism.

Omar Alshogre, refugee, political activist and Georgetown University student, shares the wrenching story of his three years as a political prisoner in the worst of Syria’s prisons. He discusses the role that extortion plays there, simultaneously delegitimizing the regime further and propping it up financially.   Episode resources:  Mentioned at (00:33): The Syrian Emergency Task Force Mentioned at (00:45): Omar's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 11 March 2020

Jim Wasserstrom spoke at the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting in Vancouver last month, describing his own experience as a whistleblower and his commitment to building an Integrity Sanctuary where whistleblowers can recover and flourish in safety.

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.

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.