Today, the prime minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, resigned due to his role in corruption allegations. According to an article in Reuters, Costa’s chief of staff, Vitor Escaria, was detained by police, and the minister for infrastructure, Joao Galamba, was named the prime suspect. According to an article in Politico, the allegation centers on large-scale infrastructure projects involving the extraction of lithium in the north of the country, as well as a project focused on the development of green hydrogen technology. The socialist government under Costa has been committed to green energy ventures. Despite this, the projects have been dogged by allegations of environmental damage and the poor quality of lithium extracted. This is a significant blow for the socialist party as they were re-elected last year, and Costa was expected to stay in power for a while longer.
SBF found Guilty in Fraud Trial.
After a two-week trial, Sam Bankman-Fried, better known as SBF, has been found guilty of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried was the former CEO of FTX and was heavily involved in the effective altruism movement. According to an article in Yahoo, SBF claimed numerous times that he had nothing to do with the alleged $8 billion fraud. However, it became apparent that his co-defendants, such as former girlfriend Caroline Ellison, testified that SBF directly told Ellison to move money from FTX accounts to prop up Alameda, a failing cryptocurrency hedge fund closely linked to FTX and run by Ellison. According to CBS, SBF also used some of the stolen money to buy expensive real estate and fund political campaigns and charitable projects.
The big question is what comes next for both SBF and the crypto industry, at least. According to an article by NASDAQ, SBF will very likely spend the rest of his life in prison, which will hopefully set an example to anyone else thinking about enriching themselves through crypto. As for the FTX users affected by the scam, they should be able to recoup at least 90 percent of their losses after a bankruptcy settlement agreed last December. SBF may also have to pay his victim restitution at his sentencing. What happened to FTX will hopefully encourage governments and other financial entities to tighten the regulations around cryptocurrency and ensure that something on this scale never happens again.
Panama Removed from FATF Gray List.
Last week, Panama was from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Gray List. FATF is an Inter-governmental organization that monitors corruption worldwide. According to an article in the US News, the Panamanian government has made enough reforms to the financial sector that the country can be taken off the list. This will, according to the article, open the door to more international investment. While this is undeniably a good sign, one has to hope that the type of people who want to put money in Panama are doing it for the right reasons.
Former Albanian PM Ensnared in Corruption Probe.
The former Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, was recently charged with corruption offenses. According to a Reuters article, Berisha hopes to steer the privatization of land once owned by a local football club, FK Partizani, in such a way that it would benefit a company owned by his son-in-law. According to a report from the AP, Berisha believes these charges are politically motivated by the current PM, Edi Rama. Berisha has a checkered history involving corruption; according to ABC News, in 2021, Berisha was banned from entering the US due to numerous allegations of corruption during their tenure as PM from 2005 to 2013. It is unclear how this will play out, but I would assume that Berisha may well be facing a stretch behind bars.
Menendez Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Corruption Charges.
Yesterday, according to an article on NBC Bay Area, Robert Menendez was back in a federal courtroom in New York City after the indictment was rewritten to add a charge. Menendez pleaded not guilty to being a foreign agent for the government of Egypt. According to an article on CBS.com, Menendez’s wife and Wael Hama, an Egyptian-American businessmen, pleaded not guilty last week, while Menendez was allowed to delay his arraignment due to his senate commitments. Due to these allegations, Menendez has stepped down from chairing the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The trial continues.
Major Match Fixing Scandal Plagues Snooker.
Match-fixing scandals are not a new occurrence in sports; football, Tennis, and many other sports have had to deal with match-fixing scandals in recent years. Even snooker, a sport much like Billiards popular in the UK and China, has fallen victim to corruption. According to an article on the BBC, ten Chinese players based in Sheffield, England, the city hosting the Snooker World Championships, were in financial difficulties last year. As a result, they resorted to manipulating the outcome of matches they played in return for money. The scandal was blown wide open by snooker’s governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), being alerted to suspicious betting patterns and whistleblowers from inside the game. This incident shows that no matter how big or small the sport is, match-fixing is always a threat to the integrity of the game.
Former Head of China Bank Arrested on Corruption Charges.
Today, China arrested the former head of one of its largest commercial banks, Liu Liange. According to the BBC, Liu is accused of illegally granting loans, bringing banned publications into China, and accepting bribes. Liu was expelled from the communist party after this accusation came to light. According to Barrons, President Xi has been embarking on a wide-sweeping campaign to eradicate corruption from the Communist Party. One must assume that Liu probably won’t see the light of day soon.
The Ongoing Misadventures of George Santos.
Last December, The New York Times reported on a newly elected republican member of the House of Representatives from Long Island named George Santos. At first, it looked as if Santos would be a breath of fresh air to the Republican party; he was part Brazilian and was in a same-sex relationship, two factors that might bring in new voters outside the traditional republican base of mostly white voters. However, it was apparent Santos was not all he seemed. According to an article from The Washington Post, Santos, on his campaign website, claimed he went to New York University and worked at Goldman Sachs. However, journalists digging into his background found that neither institution had any record of Santos having worked at Goldman or attended NYU. Santos also found himself in a spot of bother with the Brazilian authorities; according to The Post, Santos allegedly stole a checkbook and then used it fraudulently. The Brazilian police couldn’t catch him but were alerted to his whereabouts once he was elected.
As time passed, more allegations about Santos began to emerge. In February of this year, an article in Politico stated that Santos set up a GoFundMe for a veteran named Richard Osthoff, whose service dog needed surgery that would cost $3,000. After helping raise the 3K, Osthoff alleges that Santos closed down the GoFundMe and made off with the money. Then, in May of this year, Santos was charged by the federal government with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds, and lying on public disclosure forms. On Tuesday, it was revealed by the New York Times that Santos is facing further counts of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, as well as possibly obstructing the FEC’s investigation. Who knows how this plays out, but I have a feeling that George may have some serious explaining to do with the feds.
Old Tensions Between Kosovo and Serbia Flare up.
In recent weeks, long-held tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have simmered to the surface. Kosovo is an ethnically divided country between Albanians and Serbians. Despite independence and vocal support from the West, there is always a fear of Serbia trying to reclaim what it sees as its rightful territory. According to an article in CNBC, there has been violence on Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia, not to mention Serbian military units amassed on the border. In late September, there was a shootout between Kosovar police and heavily armed Serbs. One of the major sticking points is that, according to the AP, The Serbian population in the North of Kosovo, particularly in the city of Mitrovica, feels the government in Pristina is not representing them. Earlier this year, the Serbian population in the north boycotted local elections, allowing ethnic Albanians to claim most of the mayoral positions, further alienating the Serbs. While the rest of Europe focuses on Russia and Ukraine, the situation in Kosovo should warrant closer examination by Western leaders.
777 Partners, Everton and the Murky World of Multi-Club Ownership in Football.
In recent weeks, Everton Football Club, based in Liverpool, England, is being taken over by an American investment firm called 777 Partners. 777 has a murky history and was at the center of a Washington Post article detailing its exploitative business practices that are not dissimilar to payday loans with extremely high-interest rates. 777 also has been buying up football clubs from around the world rapidly. The head of 777, Josh Wander, also has a colorful history; according to the Post article, in his student days, he was charged with drug trafficking after allegedly opening a package containing cocaine that the federal government was tracking. He pleaded no contest and avoided prison time but was sentenced to 14 years on probation, but surely that will be a black mark against the Premier League’s recently beefed up Owners and Directors Test has any teeth to it. One has to feel for longtime Everton supporters who have had to deal with their club struggling both on and off the pitch and could be taken over by a charlatan.
The backdrop to 777 & Everton is the growth of multi-club ownership in football, where one person, or usually an investment group, buys into several clubs worldwide. There are numerous examples, the most famous of which is the City Football Group (CFG), who owns Manchester City and clubs in Australia, the U.S., and elsewhere. According to an article in ESPN, one of the main benefits of owning several clubs is that if one club gets relegated, the financial impact won’t be as profound if the others in the network are performing strongly. Another reason that multi-club ownership is widespread is because it allows big clubs to loan out young players to smaller clubs within their network. However, there are also numerous downsides, and chief among them is a loss of identity and a corporatization of the football ecosystem, particularly in Europe. In my view, the multi-club models are bad for the future of sport because they whittle clubs down to investments and not what clubs should represent; they should represent civic pride and, most importantly, the values of their supporters.
Crispin Corruption Report 