The four horsemen of financial system corruption
DEMOCRACY
Maybe it’s the rain, maybe it’s the lack of fuel at the filling stations, or maybe it’s the fact that Covid is closing local schools once more, but the world – or my part of it anyway – feels at the moment like a gloomy place. As such, I’ve been finding the prospect of the Summit for Democracy scheduled for December curiously hopeful.
- “Democracies have to come together — to rejuvenate and improve our open, rights-respecting societies from within; to stand together in defending against threats from autocracies; and to show we can address the most pressing crises of our time,” as the State Department put it.
Now, I appreciate the summit will almost certainly be a disappointment; and I appreciate it will be captured by corporate lobbyists, who will exclude the activists who might actually shake democracy up in interesting ways and instead push proposals in the interests of their funders. But. I am very much looking forward to seeing all the proposals put forward over the next couple of months to revitalize democracies, even if they don’t lead to anything immediate.
In that context, kudos to Josh Rudolph – Fellow for Malign Finance (great job title!) at the Alliance for Securing Democracy – for last week’s report on how the United States can force the gatekeepers to its financial system to check the origins of the money that they handle. At presents, banks are required to conduct thorough due diligence on the holders of their accounts, but other providers of professional services are not. Since kleptocrats and money launderers are no fools, this quite clearly means they will be sending money away from the vast ramparts around banks, and into the financial system via the wide-open side doors marked “lawyers”, “accountants” or various other things.