Tag: UAE

Corruption in the Comoros Islands: The Passport Scandal. 

Disclaimer: I met a gentleman from Comoros in my local coffee shop on Friday who suggested I look into corruption there.) 

Twelve years ago, Comoros Islands, a small chain of islands off the Southeastern coast of Africa, started a scheme to allow stateless persons from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to buy Comoros citizenship. According to a report in Reuters, there are immediate concerns about where and what the profits of the sold passport were going towards. There were also concerns about how the promised development projects the UAE and Kuwait pledged to would come to fruition. According to a report in November of 2022 by Al Jazeera, the president at the time, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, was sentenced to life in prison for crimes of “high treason” after it was found that he embezzled $1.8 billion in government profits from the scheme. Sadly, like many other African leaders, Sambi wanted to enrich himself and his immediate circle with the proceeds of a scheme that seemed dodgy straight from the off.    

Tom Barrack: Just a Friend of Trump or a Friend with Benefits.

Recently, the trial of one of former President Trump’s closest friends started in Brooklyn. Lebanese-American Tom Barrack, a real estate mogul like Trump, has been charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Barrack was the head of Trump’s inaugural committee and is close to other Trump allies, including Paul Manafort, a well-known lobbyist. According to The Guardian, Barrack speaks fluent Arabic and views himself as someone who can operate and deal with Middle Eastern leaders and power brokers. He was the head of Miramax films from 2013 until 2016, when it was sold to Qatar-based Bein Group; he also runs Los Angeles-based Colony Capital, a private equity real estate firm.

This is not the first time Barrack has been linked to Middle Eastern countries. When he was younger, he worked in the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and made connections with the royal family. Prosecutors allege that Barrack tried to influence former President Trump to pursue a foreign policy favorable to the United Arab Emirates. In return, the UAE would allow Barrack to invest in the lucrative real estate market in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. According to Bloomberg, there was also hope from the UAE government that Trump would make Barrack Secretary of State so that UAE could have a direct line to the government to influence foreign policy further. Barrack’s fate hangs in the balance, as the trial is not over, but if he is found guilty, his usefulness to Trump will end.