Posted on 05/16/2014 3:47:33 AM PDT by mgist
KLEPTOCRACY The irony of Americas new global kleptocracy swat team By Tim Fernholz @timfernholz April 29, 2014
After the demonstrations, you've got to follow the money. Reuters/Gleb Garanich
Its day one of the new regime. Two months ago, opposition groups hit the streets to protest an autocratic government, and after the security forces got out of hand, a reconciliation government swept into power. The only problem? The president-for-life spent the last decade selling off the countrys assets for kick-backs, and the treasury is empty.
Its not an uncommon story: In recent years, weve seen it play out in Libya and Egypt, Myanmar and now Ukraine, where journalists and activists actually set up camp in a palace formerly occupied by deposed president Victory Yanukovych in an attempt to document his corruption. The problem is hardly academic: Governments, like everything else, run on money, and adding fiscal woes to the myriad challenges of state-building in the wake of regime change is a recipe for chaos.
The United States has already sent a team of financial crime investigators to provide assistance hunting down Ukraines stolen assets, and now it will formalize this response, according to a speech delivered this morning by the top law enforcement officer in the US, Attorney General Eric Holder:
I am pleased to announce the creation of a dedicated Kleptocracy squad within the [Federal Bureau of Investigation.] This specialized unit will partner with our Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to aggressively investigate and prosecute corruption casesnot only in Ukraine, but around the world. The squad of about a dozen personnel will consist of case agents and forensic analysts who are capable of unraveling the intricate money laundering transactions commonly employed by kleptocrats. Their sophisticated work will be supported by deputy marshals from the United States Marshals Service and analysts from FinCEN, which is our financial intelligence unit. And this new initiative will provide the United States with increased capacity to respond rapidly to political crises as they ariseso we can help prevent stolen assets from being dissipated or secreted away by deposed regimes. + This kind of technical assistance will be a boon to new regimes. But theres irony here that could cause some mistrust: The US is one of the biggest receivers of laundered money, its legal framework preserves the ability of kleptocrats to hide money here, and it doesnt have a great record of timely responses to accusations of corruption. + Consider one example touted by Holder in his speech: In March, the FBI seized more than $458 million stolen by the Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and delivered to tax havens through US banks. Abacha died in 1998. Then theres Dymtro Firtash, the Ukrainian oil baron who prospered as an energy middle-man before being indicted for bribery by the US and reportedly squeezed for information on money flowing out of Ukraine; his indictment wasnt unsealed until after Ukraine government fell. Another example is the tension between successive new Egyptian governments and the US over the location of former dictator Hosni Mubaraks fortune, most of which was accrued while he was under American protection. + Ultimately, experts say, its easier and more efficient to stop illicit cash flows from leaving countries in the first place than try to track them through the byzantine global financial system after the fact.
Since Eric Holder is involved, I'm inclined to think that the Ukraine was dealing with Russian mafia cartel, and other drug cartels, and he wants to destroy any evidence linked to the US, and Soros. haha
Ditto
I thought so at first. Then I did a Google News search on Kleptocracy.
Sounds awfully much like "Idiocracy," don't you think?
Others countries have more to fear with getting looted by the Obama regime. This whole cabal of criminals has robbed the US blind and now they are going to rob countries like Ukraine.
What kind of loot squad would put Obama, Biden, and Holder in charge.
The foxes guarding the hen houses.
Soylendra was a setup for the kleptocrats to steal money. It has happened over and over again.
The $17 trillion is mostly money stolen by the Kleptocrats
The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise
LTN
The "you owe me" crowd that voted that team into office.
Fight the Free Sh☭t Nation
If the US is forming a squad to investigate gummint corruption why would we send them anywhere? We have plenty of work for them right here.
Uh....Hey....Eric....What about the kleptocrat you work for?
What about the kleptocrats at BLM...and IRS....and EPA....and DOW...and the National Forest Service....and Agriculture?
Idiocracy was not screened for critics, but the film received generally favorable reviews. Praise focused on concept, casting, and humor; the bulk of the criticism was directed at the film's release issues or at special effects and plot problems. Los Angeles Times reviewer Carina Chocano described it as "spot on" satire and a "pitch-black, bleakly hilarious vision of an American future", although the "plot, naturally, is silly and not exactly bound by logic. But it's Judge's gimlet-eyed knack for nightmarish extrapolation that makes Idiocracy a cathartic delight."[22] In a review only 87 words long[10] in Entertainment Weekly, Joshua Rich gave the film an "EW Grade" of "D" stating that "Mike Judge implores us to reflect on a future in which Britney and K-Fed are like the new Adam and Eve."[23] The AV Club's Nathan Rabin found Luke Wilson "perfectly cast [...] as a quintessential everyman"; and wrote of the film: "Like so much superior science fiction, Idiocracy uses a fantastical future to comment on a present [...] . There's a good chance that Judge's smartly lowbrow Idiocracy will be mistaken for what it's satirizing."[14]
In other countries the film was reviewed positively. John Patterson, critic for The Guardian (U.K.), wrote, "Idiocracy isn't a masterpiece Fox seems to have stiffed Judge on money at every stage but it's endlessly funny", and of the film's popularity, described seeing the film "in a half-empty house. Two days later, same place, same show packed-out."[24] Brazilian news magazine Veja called the film "politically incorrect", recommended that readers see the DVD, and wrote "the film went flying through [American] theaters and did not open in Brazil. Proof that the future contemplated by Judge is not that far away."[25]
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