The Capture of “Fat Leonard.”

Recently, Venezuelan police captured Leonard Glenn Francis, better known as “Fat Leonard,” after he fled from his San Diego home while under house arrest. Francis, a Malaysian defense contractor was involved in a massive 35-million-dollar bribery and fraud scandal. Earlier this month, according to The Guardian’s Edward Helmore, Francis, who is due to be sentenced for his part in the scandal, cut off his ankle bracelet and left the U.S with the possible intention of going to Asia or Russia. Fat Leonard was brazen in his methods for winning lucrative U.S Navy contracts. He would host lavish parties for members of the U.S. navy in Asian ports, wining and dining the right people to gain preferential treatment in the bidding for resupplying contracts.

On the 27th of September of last year, Aljazeera reported that Fat Leonard has kidney cancer and was attempting to apply for political asylum in Venezuela. According to the report, it has been suggested by the State Department that the socialist government in Venezuela, led by Nicolas Maduro could use him as a bargaining chip to reduce U.S. sanctions. According to PBS, the sanctions toward Venezuela prevent U.S banks from dealing with the Venezuelan government or the state oil firm PDVSA. While the U.S does have an extradition treaty with Venezuela, it does not have an embassy in Caracas, which could make any deal more complicated.

EU Gravy Train to be Halted in Budapest.

Recently, the European Union has threatened to cut off funds from its state budget to Hungary. Reportedly, the EU could withhold up to 7.5 billion Euros from the Hungarian government. If the EU does indeed take action, this could deliver a severe blow to an already struggling economy. According to the EU, this is being considered because the Hungarian government led by Viktor Orban has diverted EU funds to friendly oligarchs. Hungary is also accused of having inadequate anti-corruption laws. In response to this, the Hungarian government has stated that it will enact new anti-corruption legislation shortly.

It is widely acknowledged that Orban and his cronies engage in corrupt practices. Orban, like many other populist leaders, uses sport as a tool to shape their political vision, mainly to increase his domestic popularity and a way to boost his ego. This has involved the use of government money to support football clubs. For example, according to an article by Tomasz Mortimer in The Guardian, the Orban government spent around 2 billion Euros on stadium construction and youth academies’ development. Orban has also authorized 100 million Euros to Puskas Akademia FC in his hometown of Felcsut. Orban has subsidized clubs owned by his oligarch friends, which has raised concerns about how the government is spending money. Using government funds to construct football stadiums instead of investing money into healthcare or education is misguided.

A New Anti- Corruption Task Force in Australia?

The recently elected Labor government (similar to the Democrats in the U.S), led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is planning to introduce new anti-corruption legislation. The main goal of this legislation is to set up a federal task force to oversee any anti-corruption investigations. In recent years, there have been several high-profile corruption scandals, including one involving a labor member of Parliament who accepted money from Chinese donors six years ago. According to Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald, polling in Australia suggests that the public wants stronger A-C laws. Although bodies already exist at the state level in Australia dealing with this issue, this new legislation will be national. However, despite Albanese’s pledge to enact the law by the end of the year, there are signs that it could be held up by cross-bench members of Parliament who want an in-depth debate of the bill before enacting it. Its passage has also been held up by the passing of the Queen, which has caused Parliament to go into recess.

Viktor Gusan: the Corrupt Sheriff of Transnistria.

Recently, in a Europa League match, Manchester United, one of the most recognizable names in world football (soccer), played a team from Moldova called FC Sheriff. The background of FC Sheriff is fascinating and mysterious. The club are based in Transnistria, a breakaway self-governing republic of Moldova that has close geopolitical ties to Russia. A company, also called Sheriff, owns the football club and additionally has its hands in many other businesses, including gas stations, supermarkets, and the local mobile phone network. Viktor Gusan, the owner of Sheriff—both the club and the company–is also allegedly involved in the illegal smuggling of many goods, including weapons. Gusan called his company Sheriff due to a love of old western movies. According to Foreign Policy magazine’s Robert O’Connor, the Sheriff company increased its bottom line through smuggling. Most of these goods make their way towards Odesa, Ukraine, a haven for illicit activities before the recent conflict with Russia.

With his accumulated wealth, Gusan built a $200 million stadium and spent lavishly on new players from foreign countries to help drive FC Sheriff to the top of the Moldavan League standings. Gusan is also heavily involved in local politics, and, according to Radio Free Europe’s Timothy Wesolowsky, he has close ties with almost every politician in the Transnistrian parliament. It is probably safe to say that not much happens in Transnistria without his approval.

Bannon Indicted for Defrauding Contributors

One of former President Donald Trump’s chief advisors, Steve Bannon, is facing charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York State for money laundering and conspiracy to defraud contributors. According to Politico’s Julian Shen-Berro, Bannon is alleged, through a fundraising initiative called We Build the Wall, to have collected money in 2019 from donors to support building a wall along the U.S/Mexico border. Trump made a campaign promise to build such a wall and to make Mexico pay for it, but Trump never achieved that goal. We Build the Wall collected15 million dollars towards that end.

However, it appears that Bannon used some of the donated money to pay a salary to the president of We Build The Wall, Brian Kolfage, a former Air Force veteran, even though Kolfage publicly insisted that he would receive no compensation for his role in developing the fund. The charge is that Bannon used the rest of the money for personal use. Ironically, Trump pardoned Bannon before leaving office in January of 2021 over these exact charges, at the federal level, brought by the Department of Justice. But that doesn’t pardon Bannon from charges made by New York state, where it appears that Bannon or one of his co-defendants were living at the time. The pardon demonstrates that both Trump and Bannon believed that the federal charges were accurate and could jeopardize Bannon. Bannon could face up to 15 years in jail and heavy financial penalties if convicted. Of course, like many corruption cases, the donors who contributed to the effort will probably never see their money again…or a completed wall.

Zelenskyy’s House Cleaning.

Recently. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired several high-ranking officials in what is becoming an ever-widening corruption scandal. Reports emerged on Monday, the 23rd of January, that Zelenskyy had fired his deputy infrastructure minister Vasyl Lozinskyi for allegedly stealing $400,000 that was intended to support the war effort. According to an article in The Guardian, Lozinskyi colluded with contractors to inflate the prices of items such as generators, and he would pocket the difference. According to a Reuters article from the 22nd of January, the defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov had secured food on contracts at highly inflated prices. Zelenskyy’s deputy cabinet minister was also fired after allegations emerged that he drove luxury cars around Kyiv shortly after Russia invaded.

A Washington Post article published recently highlights the role journalists and NGOs in Ukraine have played in exposing corrupt schemes. Also, according to a recent report by The Guardian, Oleksandr Novikov, the country’s lead anti-corruption tsar, has vowed not to let up on pursuing corrupt individuals despite being in the middle of a war. According to polling done in Ukraine before the war, only 40 percent of the Ukrainian population was willing to report corruption. However, 84 percent of the population is now ready to report wrongdoing. Surely if Countries such as the US and the UK are going to continue giving military aid to Ukraine, they will want to see some progress on the anti-corruption front.

The Imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi: Politically Motivated or Genuine?

Recently Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted of corruption charges and now faces up to 33 years in prison. She is also facing charges related to breaching COVID-19 laws, sedition, and election fraud. Suu Kyi is viewed as a defender of democratic and human rights in Burma, where the military holds immense power over civil society. According to an article by NPR, the specific corruption charges relate to the alleged misuse of state funds and allowing a cabinet minister to purchase a helicopter. Western experts generally assume that Suu Kyi’s trial is essentially for show, not unlike the trials that took place during the Stalin era in the Soviet Union. Despite Ms. Suu Kyi’s questionable actions regarding the minority Rohingya ethnic group, it seems unlikely that she is guilty of wrongdoing.

Suu Kyi’s trial and corruption charges appear to be a classic example of an authoritarian government attempting to remove a politician with democratic ideals through spurious allegations. Befitting a country where a military junta is in power, there is not much information on how deep corruption runs in Myanmar. However, there is a report authored by the Anti-Corruption Resource Centre detailing the different types of misconduct that affect civil society in Myanmar. For example, cronyism appears to be prevalent within the military, with high-ranking ministers selling state-run assets to close friends and associates with little transparency being observed. Myanmar also suffers from a “resource curse,” meaning that while it is blessed with many natural resources, corruption surrounding oil & gas exploration and logging is rampant. It seems very clear that the military junta sees Suu Kyi as a threat to their abuses and of their grip on power, so putting her in prison on politically motivated charges appears, from their perspective, to be the only option.