Former Kyrgyzstan President Sentenced to 11 Years in Absentia.

Yesterday, a court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced the former president Almazbek Atambayev to 11 years in absentia on charges of corruption and participating in mass unrest. According to a report in Al Jazeera, Atambayev was found guilty of illicit enrichment, illegally acquiring land, and resisting arrest by Kyrgyzstan special forces. Kyrgyzstan has been a politically unstable country ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. An example of this was that Atambayev fell out with his successor in 2017, was arrested in 2019, then freed, and then arrested again in 2020 before being freed on medical grounds and moving to Spain in 2023. According to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP), Atambayev was accused of embezzling funds from renovating the thermal power plant in the capital, Bishkek. What will happen next is unclear, but Atambayev won’t return to Bishkek anytime soon.

Mongolian PM Resigns After Son’s Corruption Allegations.

Yesterday, the Mongolian prime minister, Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, resigned after receiving a no-confidence vote. According to a report from the BBC, Oyun-Erdene’s son and his girlfriend posted an image of a black Dior handbag and other shopping bags full of luxury goods. Mongolia has a history of corruption, with the former prime minister, Sukhbaatar Batbold, having allegedly bought two luxury apartments in New York City with misappropriated mining funds. According to a report in Al Jazeera, Oyun Erdene needed 72 parliamentarians to survive the no-confidence result. However, he only received 44 votes. This is just another in a long line of political upheavals related to corruption in Mongolia’s history.

Ghana Embassy Shut Down Over Visa Scam.

Yesterday, reports emerged that the Ghanaian embassy was shut down over an alleged visa scam. According to a report from Newsweek, Fred Kwarteng, a member of the IT department, set up an unauthorized link on the embassy website that redirected users to his private company, Ghana Travel Consultants (GTC). Kwarteng and his associates then charged more for visa-related services than was reasonable, and they kept all of the proceeds for themselves. As a result, the entire IT department was dissolved, and the whole embassy will be closed until an ongoing restructuring plan is finished. It is unclear what will happen to Kwarteng, but I imagine he would face prosecution in Ghana and possibly in the U.S.

Nadine Menendez Found Guilty on Bribery Charges.

Nadine Menendez, the wife of Bob Menendez, was convicted on Monday of participating in her husband’s bribery scheme. According to a report in the New York Times, Nadine Menendez used her influence with the Egyptian business community to make her husband a foreign agent. Jurors in Ms Menendez’s trial heard that she had accepted cash in return for granting access to her husband. According to a report in Politico, this case brought by the Southern District of New York may be the last of its kind for a while, as there have been resignations, and the Trump administration has other priorities than fighting corruption. It will be fascinating to see what type of sentence Menendez gets, unless President Trump pressures the Department of Justice like he did around Eric Adams.

Platini and Blatter Cleared in Corruption Case.

Today, Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter, two heavyweights of the global football administration, were cleared of corruption charges. According to a report in The Guardian, the Swiss attorney general’s office had asked for 20 months in prison with two years of the sentence suspended. This case centered around a payment of $2.2 million to Blatter from Platini in the name of non-contracted work done when Platini was advising Blatter’s campaign to be re-elected as FIFA president from 1998 to 2002. According to a report in the BBC, this case was tied in with the wider FIFA scandal and other high-ranking FIFA officials participating in corruption and bribery on an industrial scale. While this is no surprise to me, it is a sad indictment of the state of football that this type of corruption is accepted so readily and that supporters face ever-increasing prices. At the same time, the administrators who run the game continue to rich off the people who love the beautiful game so much.

EU Takes Back €1 Billion From Hungary.

Last week, the EU stripped € 1.04 billion in aid from Hungary. The EU and Hungary have been at loggerheads over development money for several years. According to a report in Radio Free Europe, The EU believed that the Hungarian government had violated EU public procurement rules. This type of aid is critical for Hungary as the traditional economy as manufacturing has declined; the Orban government has relied on these payments to prop up the economy as well as to use for infrastructure such as football grounds or repaving roads (I can attest to the fact that they are very smooth). It will be fascinating to see how this plays out; Hungary needs the money, but unless Orban changes his leadership style (which is unlikely), I don’t see the EU changing its mind.

Indian Businessman Adani Facing Fraud Charges.

Today, it was announced that Gautam Adani is facing multiple federal fraud charges. According to a report in The Washington Post, Adani is the second richest man in India and a close ally to Prime Minister Modi. Adani has many interests, from real estate to coal mines and solar farms. According to a report in the Washington Post, the charges that Adani faces surround an alleged $265 million bribe paid to the Indian government and then supposedly lying to investors about the bribe. This is not the first time Adani has faced allegations of wrongdoing around potential stock manipulation. If Adani is found guilty, it could have significant political ramifications in India.

Jury Deliberations Start in Menendez Case.

On Friday, Jury deliberations started in the Robert Menendez Corruption trial. Menendez is charged with using his power as a senator to lobby the Egyptian government’s interests in Congress. According to a report in CNN, prosecutors structured their presentation of the case in chapters calling different witnesses involved in Menendez’s various schemes. According to the report in The Hill, Menendez’s attorneys blamed his wife (who is also facing trial this fall on similar charges) for concealing her business doings from her husband. It is unclear how long the deliberations will take.

Ex-PM of Malta Pleads Not Guilty in Corruption Case.

Last week, the former Prime Minister of Malta pleaded not guilty to a sprawling corruption scandal. According to a report in Politico, Muscat was involved in a scheme whereby he allegedly benefitted financially from selling four hospitals to an American private healthcare company called the Steward Health Care group. Muscat received a 60,000 euro payment from a Swiss company, Accurtor AG, closely linked to Steward. Muscat’s chief of staff and another cabinet minister have also been implicated in this scandal. While Muscat’s hands might not be dirty, allies of his are facing charges related to the death of Daphne Galizia, a prominent Anti-Corruption journalist, as well as a bribery scheme involving a contract to run a power station.

Update on Ericsson Corruption Scandal.

I wrote an article a year ago on the U.S. Department of Justice monitoring the telecommunications company Ericsson over corrupt practices in China and Djibouti. Today, Ericsson announced that the monitoring program instituted by the Justice Department has ended. According to a website called capacitymedia.com, the Department of Justice released a statement saying it was satisfied that Ericsson had met its compliance requirements. According to Ericsson’s president, Borje Ekholm, Ericsson is committing to being more transparent with its business practices in the future. Only time will tell if this is a true statement or not.