Head of Montenegro’s Anti-Corruption Fired after Abuse of Office Allegations Surface.

Yesterday, the head of Montenegro’s Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) was fired after allegations surfaced that she abused her power in office. According to a report in Barron’s Jelena Perovic, she was arrested after a government investigation found that she had awarded herself overtime pay worth $14,000 in 2023. Montenegro is amid an anti-corruption drive in a bid to be admitted to the EU. According to a report in Radio Free Europe, Perovic’s lawyer, Nikola Martinovic, said that her arrest was related to the alleged misuse of a state car. Whatever might or might not have happened, it’s never a good look when the head of an Anti-Corruption agency gets arrested for misuse of public office.

Vietnam Sentences Lan to Death Over Fraud.

Last Week, the Vietnamese real estate magnate Troung My Lan was sentenced to death after being found guilty in a massive financial fraud trial. Vietnam is a country that has been plagued by corruption, particularly in and around the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an AP report, Lan was illegally involved with the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank and set up 2,500 loans, which caused the bank to lose $27 billion. Lan grew famous in Vietnam by founding the real estate firm Van Thinh Phat. The Ho Chi Minh City court leveled such a harsh sentence because Lan was at the head of a well-organized criminal network, and there was no chance of her repaying the court-ordered $26 million to the bank. According to Al Jazeera, her lawyers have 15 days to appeal the death sentence.

Former Colombian President Uribe to Face Trial.

This week, the former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been charged with fraud and witness tampering by Colombian prosecutors. According to a report by The Guardian, Uribe is facing allegations that he used right-wing paramilitary groups to target leftist rebels. Uribe is praised by many on the Colombian right wing for eradicating the threat of The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). According to a report in The Washington Post, Uribe retains a large amount of political capital in that he has helped elect two successors into the office of president. Uribe has faced legal issues for the last decade so that I wouldn’t expect a swift conclusion to this trial.

Peru Embroiled in “Rolexgate” Corruption Scandal.

Last Week, Peru was embroiled in another political corruption scandal. Known as “Rolexgate,” According to a report in The Guardian, it emerged that President Dina Boluarte, who came into office on an anti-corruption platform, had amassed a collection of jewelry, including several Rolex watches valued at $500,000. Boluarte’s presidential salary is listed at only $3,000 a month, so how exactly she amassed such a valuable collection is anyone’s guess. According to a report in Le Monde, Peruvian prosecutors have charged Boluarte with illicit enrichment and failure to disclose assets. Boluarte’s defense is ever-shifting. Firstly, she claimed the Rolexes were the “fruit of my labor,” stating that she had worked since she was 18 years of age; then she said that she accepted the watches as a loan from a provincial governor, which the governor almost certainly would have asked for something in return. No matter what her explanation is, the whole affair seems dodgy.

Russian journalist Connected to Navalny Detained.

Last Friday, a Russian journalist who filmed the last video of Alexi Navalny was detained in Moscow, and according to a report by The Guardian, Russian authorities accused Antonia Forskaya of being part of an “Extremist Organization” which the Russian government uses to refer to Navalny’s organization. According to an article in the AP, she is accused of producing and editing videos for Navalny’s organization. In an even more worrying development, two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were detained simply for going to visit Forskaya while she was imprisoned. Given recent events, I fear for Forskaya and all of the other brave Russian journalists, both inside and outside of the country, who are exposing the corruption embedded within Putin’s regime.

SBF Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison.

Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison, capping a swift fall from grace after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering charges. Federal prosecutors had been aiming for a much higher sentence, arguing that the nature of his crimes meant that he should spend most of the rest of his life behind bars. According to a report by the New York Times, SBF will also have to forfeit $11.4 billion in assets and will most likely be sent to a low or medium-security prison near his parent’s home in San Francisco. According to a report by the AP, SBF will not serve his sentence in a maximum security prison due to his autism, and his public persona would make him a target in prison. Despite the collapse of FTX and the downfall of SBF, I still believe that the Cryptocurrency industry has a long way to go to establish any form of trust that people’s investments can be handled securely.

Opposition Leader in India Arrested on Corruption Charges.

Last Thursday, the chief minister of the Union territory of Delhi (a type of administrative district not unlike a state in India), Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested on corruption charges. According to a report in the BBC, the charges center on a policy related to allowing alcohol to be sold by private individuals; before that, all liquor sold in Delhi was sold by the state government. According to an article by the LA Times, leaders of other opposition parties in India have accused the government of Narendra Modi of stifling their ability to campaign for the upcoming election on April 19^th. On Friday, a large group of AAP supporters were detained after protesting Kejriwal’s arrest. It is unclear what will happen in the future, but this is an ominous sign for the future of democracy in India.

Menendez drops out of Democratic Primary.

Yesterday, the embattled New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez announced that he will not run in the upcoming Democratic senate race. According to a report in the New York Times, Menendez realized that due to the international bribery charges he was facing, he was unlikely to win the primary with the democratic party distancing themselves from him. However, according to a report in The Hill, there are strong rumors that Menendez may attempt to run for senate as an independent. Menendez has June 4^th to obtain the minimum 800 signatures needed to mount a campaign. Given the scandal surrounding Menendez, I don’t see how he can run again for senate. Surely, his political career is over at this point.

Update on Vietnam Corruption.

Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong resigned today after being caught up in a long-running corruption scandal. Vietnam has been in the middle of a wide-ranging Anti-Corruption drive for several years. According to the AP, Thoung was the second president in two years to resign from his post, which, for a country striving to be more democratic, is not a good look. This comes shortly after an ally of Thoung, the governor of the central Vietnamese province Quang Ngai, resigned from his post due to allegations of corruption. While this anti-corruption campaign shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, concerns about political stability will grow if more Vietnamese politicians get arrested.

Prosecutors in SBF Case Want a 40 to 50-Year Sentence.

On Friday, Federal prosecutors in the Sam Bankman-Fried fraud case want him to serve 40 to 50 years in prison. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 110 years. According to a report in the New York Times, the federal probation service has recommended that SBF face 100 years in prison, which equates to a life sentence. SBF’s lawyers, unsurprisingly, are calling for a much more lenient sentence of six and a half years. I would have to assume that SBF’s sentence will be in the 40 or 50-year range, given the extent of the fraud he committed.