Corruption In Iraq & World

Five British companies probed in drive against corruption

This article doesn't really provide a good background on why this new UK anti-corruption police group was formed.  As mentioned later in the article, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) was involved, but they didn't explain that the OECD has been working on a cooperative agreement for a number of years among larger countries to adopt a "Convention on Bribery".  Basically, the Convention signers agree to support other countries where residents of one country, i.e. the UK, commit fraud, bribery or corruption in another country, like Iraq, then escape back to the UK.  In many cases, the country of residence didn't provide good legal support for the "losing" country to arrest and prosecute the wrongdoers.   Maybe 1-2 years ago, there was an outcry about the UK being a signer of the convention, but not actually doing anything to extradite wrongdoers to the country where bribery occurred.  The article below mentions a case  regarding a UK company BAE. 

So, it appears now that the UK has established a crack police group to track down UK residents and citizens and assist the "loser" country in extraditing or prosecuting them for bribery cases.   There is progress in international anti-corruption prosecution, but it happens in one country at a time.  For instance, there are quite a few known Iraqi government officials who took bribes or siphoned government funds from Iraq, and escaped to London.  Hopefully they will be tracked down and prosecuted or extradited to Iraq.
vj

from FT.com
Five British companies probed in drive against corruption

By Jimmy Burnsand Michael Peel

Published: March 24 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 24 2007 02:00

British companies in at least five foreign countries are being investigated for alleged bribes in an initiative that the new anti-corruption police unit hopes will result in the first overseas corruption trial getting under way next year.

The unprecedented anti-corruption drive is being led by a 10-person investigation unit within the City of London's economic crime department, the elite anti-fraud squad. It is focused on cases that have been referred by the Serious Fraud Office.

Cases being probed by the unit include allegations that a number of UK-based companies paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq as part of the United Nations' discredited oil-for-food programme.

Steve Wilmott, head of the new unit, said in an interview that its existence was evidence the government was serious about its international anti-corruption obligations, although heaccepted it would be judgedon results rather than intentions.

"I would like to be judged in a year's time to see what we have done," he said. "Have we got people before the court? I am convinced we will within the year."

Speaking from the City police's new headquarters, Mr Wilmott, who is the head of the force's economic crime department, said the anti-corruption unit already had five cases "on the go" and could probably go up to a maximum of seven at any one time. In January, the unit made its first arrests over a case relating to an alleged $1.6m (£815,000) slush fund in Costa Rica. London-based PWS Holdings, the reinsurance company at the centre of the inquiry, says it is co-operating fully with the authorities.

Mr Wilmott said that the new unit, which is due to receive about £3m of Department for International Development funding over the next three years, was "a major step forward in terms of credibility" and was pioneering internationally. "We think we are the only country in the world tohave a dedicated policeunit deploying on this,"he said.

Leading industrialised nations last week attacked Britain's record on tackling bribery, announcing that they would investigate whether flaws in the law and its enforcement were preventing successful prosecutions.

The decision by the 36-member anti-bribery group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development came after Britain used national security grounds controversially to drop an investigation into alleged bribery of Saudi Arabian officials by BAE Systems, the arms maker. BAE has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Mr Wilmott said that considerations of national security, diplomacy and commerce had not been part of the vetting process for the cases that his unit had taken on.

He said that his unit would not "cherry-pick" easy investigations, al-though he acknowledged it was "far easier" to investigate cases in which foreign governments were co-operative because the alleged wrongdoing involved members of a previous administration.

Earlier this week, Ian McCartney, the trade minister, told MPs that the government would co-operate fully with the OECD's continuing investigation into Britain's efforts to tackle international corruption.

The co-operation would include a "constructive approach" to a future visit to the UK by experts in anti-corruption issues from two other OECD countries over the coming year, and a further "progress" report due to be compiled by them on Britain's policing record and legislation.

"We fully anticipate further recognition of the high level of transparency that characterises the UK's activities in this field," said Mr McCartney in a written statement.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

CPI Chief Says Iraq Corruption is Worse now than under Saddam

Iraqi anti-corruption head says graft worse than in Saddam's time                

03/08/2007 @ 7:42 pm

                        Filed by RAW STORY

               

dpa German Press Agency

 

Cairo - Corruption in Iraq is now worse than it was during Saddam Hussein's regime, the Chairman of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, said in an interview published Thursday in the Arabic-language Asharq Alawsat newspaper.

'There are eight ministers and 40 general directors against whom corruption charges have been brought and they had all fled abroad,' he said.

According to Al-Radhi, the commission was currently investigating the embezzlement of public funds to the tune of eight billion US dollars.

Independent observers in Baghdad report that it is very difficult to find an official who will discharge a public service without a bribe.

Al-Radhi conceded that the authority itself has been found guilty of corruption on several occasions.

However, he said,the problems which the commision had experienced were not of the magnitude that its critics had claimed.

The CPI was established in January 2003 by the now disbanded Iraqi Interim Governing Council to curb bribery, embezzlement, and the misuse of power and public funds.

In the latest corruption index of the Organization Transparency International, Iraq was found to be the fourth most corrupt country in the world.

© 2007 - dpa German Press Agency

Afghanistan Illustrates Corruption Problem caused by low Government wages

This article illustrates that one of the most pervasive weaknesses in developing countries is corruption.  One major reason for corruption is that it occurs in countries where government workers, such as the judges mentioned below, earn so little they have to use corruption to supplement their income.  Thus when government wages are increased to middle class standards, a lot of the reasons for corruption may disappear.
vj

===============================================
from MercuryNews.com

Posted on Thu, Mar. 01, 2007

Fight urged against opium, corruption in Afghanistan

By Renee Schoof and Jonathan S. Landay

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Pakistan arrested a senior Taliban leader for the first time this week, but success in Afghanistan depends less on defeating the militant Islamist group than it does on curbing the country's growing opium trade and cleaning up corrupt courts and police, a former NATO commander told a Senate committee on Thursday.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones said that NATO and the United States can defeat the Taliban, which harbored al-Qaida until the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but he argued that the nation's biggest problem is its growing dependence on narcotics trafficking.

Jones also said that the judicial system in Afghanistan is "on life support," with top judges susceptible to corruption because they earn only $100 a month, less than the cost of renting an apartment in Kabul.

The news of the arrest and Jones' testimony came on the same day that the State Department released its 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategies Report, which said that Afghanistan produced a record 5,644 metric tons of opium in 2006, a 26 percent jump from the previous year. The State Department said there was "strong evidence" that drug trafficking was funding the Taliban.

Under pressure from the United States and NATO to crack down on Taliban forces in areas of the country bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan arrested Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the defense minister in the Taliban regime that took power in Kabul in 1996, two U.S. officials said Thursday.

The arrest came the day before Vice President Dick Cheney discussed the issue with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, in Islamabad.

The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that Akhund was arrested on Monday in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province.

His presence there appeared to support charges by Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials that Taliban leaders have been directing the insurgency in Afghanistan from the city. Pakistan has denied the assertion.

"I don't think the Taliban is 10 feet tall," Jones said Thursday. The extremist Islamic group and allied al-Qaida fighters have more access to money because of the drug trade, he said, and they're trying to kill enough NATO soldiers so that public pressure will build in NATO countries that have contributed troops to pull them out.

"This can be halted if we do the things that will swing the (Afghan) people around to supporting the government," he said.

Jones commanded NATO from 2003 until December during the time when Afghanistan became the alliance's main mission. His testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee came as Congress turns its attention to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan as it debates whether to reduce the U.S. military effort in Iraq.

Barnett Rubin, a leading Afghanistan expert, told the committee that the United States has put too much emphasis on the military and too little on civilian efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.

Rubin surprised the committee with a story about Iranian officials wanting to help the United States against al-Qaida in Afghanistan but getting rebuffed.

Rubin said he met with Iranian officials he'd known for many years in Kabul in November. He didn't identify them, but said they'd "been involved with Afghanistan for a long time" and believed that al-Qaida, the Sunni Muslim terrorist group, posed a major threat to mostly Shiite Muslim Iran.

"They told me they had some information about it and they would like to cooperate with the United States, but neither their government in Tehran nor our government in Washington had authorized the sharing of that information, which they found frustrating," Rubin said.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman, said Rubin's testimony would be sent to the State Department.

Korean Reinsurance $150+ Million Fraud helps fund corrupt government

Here is the article about how the Korean government is obtaining funds by filing fictitious insurance claims - as an example, filing a claim for the sinking of a ferry boat where every single passenger had life insurance.

Comment:  One disturbing trend seems to be that the UK diplomats and government, where much of the reinsurance industry is centered, refuses to take action to investigate the evidence.  The article says that it is possible that the UK Foreign department does not want to affect their role in nuclear negotiations or ability to have an embassy in Korea.   That is exactly what I saw in the US Embassy in Baghdad where the State department refused to put priority on requiring the Iraqi government to improve internal accounting systems and controls to prevent and detect corruption.
vj
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from www.FoxNews.com

North Korea Suspected of Collecting Millions in Reinsurance Fraud

Monday   , December  04, 2006

By George Russell

NEW YORK — The cash-strapped regime of North Korea, which has a worldwide reputation for its criminal dealings in weapons sales, drugs and near-perfect counterfeit U.S. $100 bills, may have found a new illicit source of hard foreign currency: international reinsurance fraud.

A growing number of major underwriters around the world strongly suspect that communist dictator Kim Jong-Il's regime is running an elaborate major insurance and reinsurance scam on them, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars or more.

The alleged fraud involves a wide variety of North Korean industrial and personal calamities where insurers have been presented with perfect government-controlled documentation of accidents, including deaths, along with carefully gathered photographic evidence, all compiled in a startlingly brief time.

That paperwork is coupled with a resistance to letting foreign insurance adjusters examine some of the most crucial physical evidence, except after long delays and under a watchful eye, if at all.

The growing concern in the reinsurance industry is that the property damage being claimed is vastly overstated, and the circumstances of some alleged accidents may have been altered, or that deaths for which insurance payment is claimed may have had nothing to do with the accidents.

Death is hardly a rare thing in North Korea, where millions are estimated to have expired from famine, flood and government repression in the past decade — but the number of apparently ordinary people in the dictatorship who have suddenly been found to have foreign-backed life insurance is raising insurers' eyebrows.

The chief concern is that only the Kim Jong-Il regime — a government that is known to be brutal, unscrupulous, and desperately short of foreign currency — controls the information required to trigger the payments.

According to Michael Payton, a lawyer who represents several of the major insurers, the full extent of the reinsurance claims may involve more than $150 million. U.K. insurers facing these claims have only just begun to talk to each other about the potential scale of their North Korean losses.

North Korean insurance risk is also handled in a wide variety of other Western European markets, and as far away as Russia, India and Indonesia.

So far, there is little attempt to begin discussing the fraud possibilities across those national boundaries.

"I've never seen anything like it before," says Payton, senior partner in the London-based international law firm of Clyde & Co., which specializes in insurance law. "The apparent involvement of the state in every detail of these claims, coupled with the impossibility of obtaining the usual corroborative facts independent of the state, makes these claims unique, in my experience."

The suspected scam involves the huge international market for reinsurance, in which insurers reduce their risk on every kind of accident, from environmental catastrophes and crop failure to airline and auto crashes, by reselling much of their policy exposure to other syndicates of insurers outside their own countries. Huge sums are routinely covered in reinsurance; globally, the reinsurance market last year was valued at some $1.5 trillion.

One of the world's most important reinsurance markets is Lloyd's of London, some of whose syndicates are represented by Clyde & Co. But a number of major players in the global reinsurance market have exposure to North Korean claims.

The reinsurance industry has been badly staggered in recent years by huge claims from storms like Hurricane Katrina and terrorist disasters like the Sept. 11 attacks. In such a huge pool of often-complicated risk deals, North Korean reinsurance claims still represent only a drop in the bucket.

Nonetheless, it is a deeply troubling drop, because even though statistics are difficult if not impossible to come by, reinsurance industry sources believe there has been a recent sharp increase in claims coming out of North Korea.

The central focus of concern is the absolute control of ownership and information in North Korea by Kim Jong Il and his regime. All North Korean insurance is controlled by one state-owned firm, the Korea National Insurance Corporation (KNIC), formerly known as the Korea Foreign Insurance Company, which in turn purchases reinsurance coverage abroad for risks that it has assumed in its domestic market.

Normally, most domestic insurers will use one, or at most two firms of brokers to obtain reinsurance. KNIC may use many, according to industry sources, and the brokers may well have no idea what business their colleagues are doing, or in what reinsurance markets.

"The North Koreans are extremely clever at spotting the gaps in the market," an industry source says. "There is no transparency."

Suspicions in London began to gel in July 2005, when North Korea reported that a medical rescue helicopter had crashed into a government-owned warehouse that authorities said was crammed with disaster relief supplies.

The entire contents of the warehouse, which ran to hundreds of thousands of items, were destroyed, KNIC said, submitting within 10 days a list compiled by the relief center of every single commodity that it said had been lost.

Along with the lengthy list came a reinsurance claim for more than 40 million euros, or almost $50 million at then-current rates, for 95 percent of the damages. The reinsurance was placed through London, but the risk was spread among reinsurers worldwide.

"They provided details including tens of thousands of children's gloves, handkerchiefs, leather gloves, toilet soap, and washing soap, within 10 days," Payton said. "In the chaos which follows an accident of this kind, that is unheard of.

"A similar loss report in Britain might take months to compile."

The North Koreans also supplied photos of the devastation, which insurers turned over to leading experts at photographic estimates of fire damage. The experts concluded that the volume of debris remaining within the warehouse, as assessed from the photographs, did not support the high volumes of relief supplies that were claimed to be there before the fire.

"The North Korean claims are supported by meticulous paperwork, something at which the North Koreans excel," Payton said.

"For example, where death certificates and hospital reports are required, the regime's attitude is 'tell us what you want, we'll give it to you.'"

In the case of a ferry accident that allegedly took place last April, near the coastal city of Wonsan, North Korean authorities declared that 129 people had died aboard the vessel after it struck a rock about 1,000 yards off the Korean coast, and only about 100 yards from an island. All of them, the Koreans claim, had been automatically covered with life insurance when they bought their ferry ticket, and that insurance risk had been passed on to the London market through a common reinsurance product known as "excess loss personal accident reinsurance." Here the claims from reinsurers totaled about 5 million euros, or roughly $6 million.

The North Koreans claimed that most of the victims had died of hypothermia in the freezing water. Industry sources say that when insurance investigators discovered that weather conditions were warmer than claimed at that time, the North Koreans responded that severe winds were blowing from Siberia in the spring, making the water unusually frigid.

When insurers asked for permission to send an independent diver to inspect the ferry wreck, they were refused.

To get North Korea's side of the story, FOX News approached the regime's official insurance representative in London, Song Ryon Ko, at his home. Song refused to discuss the issue and hastily closed his door.

Britain's Foreign Office says the lack of firm proof of fraud is why it hasn't taken action on the reinsurance issue, although British diplomats say they are aware of it. But as the British government is trying to put limits on Kim Jong Il's nuclear weapons program, the lack of an official British reaction could also be an attempt not to rock the boat, as well as to protect its diplomatic presence in Pyongyang.

Other experts on North Korea who are unaffiliated with the British or U.S. governments are much more willing to take the reinsurance industry's concerns at face value.

"Anything that might be called white-collar financial crime might be an easy target for the regime," says Alexander Neill, head of the Asia-Pacific security program at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London.

"If you look at the Kim family regime or the North Korean regime much more as a criminal organization, but on a state level, I think that's a better way to look at it. There's a whole dark underworld of operations which can be undertaken with criminals who are apolitical."

David Asher, a former senior adviser on East Asian affairs at the U.S. State Department, and coordinator of the Bush administration's North Korea Working Group, agrees.

While unfamiliar with the current fraud allegations, Asher says he is aware of previous North Korean forgery of insurance policies for its shipping, including fake Lloyd's of London coverage. "The country will do anything to raise funds," he says. "They're not a nation-state, they're a criminal state."

Kim Jong-Il's regime depends on hard currency to maintain its privileged lifestyle and its internal solidarity. Criminal activity is "deep rooted, at every level of government," Asher says.

The question is whether, and how much, that activity might be spreading through the world of international reinsurance.

George Russell is Executive Editor of FOX News. Greg Palkot and Kimberly Miller contributed reporting on this story.

Korean Frauds

Fox News Today had an article about a newly discovered fraud run by Kim Jung Il in Korea using fake documents to obtain insurance payoffs.   While looking for it (see later posts), I found this old 1999 article where "Made in Korea" stickers were removed from musical instruments before selling them as "Made in USA" (I assume) goods to buyers.  That scam ran for years.   So, here it is - another way to increase prices and sales of exported goods from a third world country.   After thinking about it, do you suppose a country with poor quality crude oil could represent it as from another better quality source?   

`Made in Korea' fraud snares area firm

CAM SIMPSON

A prominent Chicago area guitar maker admitted Friday it defrauded thousands of musicians nationwide by selling them instruments routinely stripped of their "Made in Korea" labels.

Washburn International Inc. will pay $1 million in fines and restitution for a fraud scheme that stretched from 1980 to at least 1994 and involved guitars, banjos, mandolins and basses, according to admissions made in federal court Friday as part of a guilty plea.

Washburn imported instruments with "easily removable" labels that could be "peeled off" with little effort, prosecutors said. As a matter of policy, employees were required to remove "all country-of- origin markings" as part of Washburn's "setup procedures for preparing musical instruments for sale to customers," the company said.

   The final inspection process also included examining instruments to make sure the tags had been removed, Washburn admitted.

The practice allowed instruments to be sold as if they were made in the United States, though there is no allegation that "Made in the U.S.A." labels were ever attached.

But warranty brochures attached to some of the instruments "gave the misleading impression" that they were "made in the Chicago area," said prosecutors, who cited "sustained involvement of upper-level management."

Prosecutors said the deception increased the value of the Korean- made guitars and "prevented consumers from making informed purchasing decisions."

Washburn attorney Sheldon T. Zenner said no Washburn instruments endorsed by prominent musicians, such as Sammy Hagar or Ace Frehley of Kiss, were involved in the scheme. The activity was uncovered during 1994 raids by U.S. Customs agents at Washburn facilities, he said.

Washburn was formerly based in Buffalo Grove but is now based in Vernon Hills. The company also is consolidating many of its operations in Mundelein.

In the plea agreement entered Friday, both sides admitted the total loss to consumers would be "extremely difficult to ascertain." So they agreed on a total payment of $1 million in fines and restitution - the maximum Washburn could have received by law after pleading guilty to two counts of mail fraud.

A relatively obscure but longstanding federal law makes it a crime to sell foreign-made products in the United States if their country- of-origin labels are removed.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported this summer that a Des Plaines company, Victor Automotive, pleaded guilty to removing Taiwan labels from 420,000 tire-pressure gauges and replacing them with "Made in the U.S.A." logos. That crime is only a misdemeanor, so prosecutors charged Washburn Friday with mail fraud to increase the penalties.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.  All rights Reserved.

China Cracks Down on Huge Shanghai Pension Fraud

China is cleaning up corruption in pension fund scandals - the BBC TV News says they sacked the head of the Shanghai Communist Party over the fiasco.   

A great quote:

(Two officials) are "assisting in the investigation," said an official in the Shanghai city government, using a phrase commonly understood to describe police detention.

Another quote:

"Auditors and corruption investigators are limited, and the usual checks and balances that expose corruption - such as a free press and regular open elections - do not exist, he says. "  ( Note that IRAQ is at least two points up on China - they have a free press, and open elections.  The also have a strong anti-corruption agency.)

Here are two articles on China corruption:

China cracks down on corruption

China has punished more than 17,500 officials in the first eight months of this year on corruption charges, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The figures come amid a widening scandal in Shanghai over possible misuse of government pension funds.

Two officials have become the latest reported casualties of the scandal.

Ling Baoheng and Wu Hongmei, from the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, are being questioned, the Associated Press says.

A total of 67,505 government officials have been punished in China for corruption since the beginning of 2003 - with 17,505 of those in the first eight months of 2006, according to Xinhua.

"These punishment figures show that the country's prosecutors are determined to root out corruption," Wang Zhenchuan, China's deputy chief prosecutor, is quoted as saying.

The government is trying to crack down on rampant corruption, fearing it could weaken the Communist Party's rule.

China's chief prosecutor, Jia Chunwang, told a conference on corruption being held this week in Beijing that "corruption, if not controlled, would undermine democracy and the rule of law and engender an increase in organised crime and terrorism".

Shanghai scandal

The most publicised corruption case in recent months is the ongoing investigation into alleged misuse of a multi-million dollar pension fund in Shanghai.

More than 50 people have been detained so far in connection with the scandal, a Beijing-funded Hong Kong newspaper has reported - including several senior Shanghai officials and businessmen.

SHANGHAI PENSIONS SCANDAL Labour and social security chief, Zhu Junyi, sacked District governor, Qin Yu, sacked City's top Communist Party official, Chen Liangyu sacked Municipal committee's vice-secretary general, Sun Luyi, sacked Head of city's F1 motor racing circuit, Yu Zhifei, questioned Head of China's National Bureau of Statistics, Qiu Xiaohua, sacked One of China's richest men, Zhang Rongkun, arrested

The first high-profile head to roll in the pensions scandal was Chen Liangyu, who was dismissed from his post as chief of the Communist Party in Shanghai last month.

Other leading figures tainted by the case include the head of Formula One in China, Yu Zhifei, who has been questioned by the authorities, and the country's chief statistician Qiu Xiaohua who was dismissed from his post.

One of the country's richest men, Zhang Rongkun, was also arrested at the weekend.

More than 100 central government investigators have been sent to Shanghai to investigate the money that has disappeared from the city's 10 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) social security fund.

The funds were allegedly used to make illegal loans and investments in real estate and other infrastructure deals.

The corruption scandal demonstrates the problems facing those who wish to end graft in China, according to the BBC correspondent in Shanghai, Quentin Somerville.

The courts do not operate independently and almost all of those detained in Shanghai have not been seen or heard of since, he adds.

Auditors and corruption investigators are limited, and the usual checks and balances that expose corruption - such as a free press and regular open elections - do not exist, he says.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6079400.stm
Published: 2006/10/24 05:24:42 GMT

===================================================================

2 more officials detained in Shanghai graft inquiry

Reuters, The Associated Press

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2006

SHANGHAI Two senior officials in charge of managing Shanghai's state- owned assets are under investigation in a widening corruption scandal that has already toppled the city's top leader, the government said Tuesday.

Ling Baoheng, chief of Shanghai's State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Wu Hongmei, a vice director for the commission, are "assisting in the investigation," said an official in the Shanghai city government, using a phrase commonly understood to describe police detention.

As head of the city's assets commission, Ling was involved in the restructuring of several major state-owned corporations, including the equipment maker Shanghai Electric Group, whose chairman and other senior officials are also under investigation.

Beijing has sent more than 100 anti- corruption investigators to Shanghai to investigate money reportedly siphoned off from the city's 10 billion yuan, or $1.25 billion, social security fund for illicit loans and investments.

Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper in Hong Kong that is backed by Beijing, said more than 50 businessmen and government officials had been taken into custody since the scandal erupted months ago.

President Hu Jintao has reined in defiant provincial leaders and tightened his grip on power by taking on Shanghai, political stronghold of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, analysts and sources said.

The Shanghai Communist Party boss, Chen Liangyu, was implicated and dismissed late last month. A Jiang ally, Chen was the first member of the party's 24-strong, decision-making Politburo to lose his seat since 1995, when the Beijing party boss, Chen Xitong, was removed and jailed.

Meanwhile, a state newspaper said that China has punished 17,505 officials so far this year on corruption charges, and quoted the country's top prosecutor as saying that the rule of law could be in danger if graft is not stamped out.

"These punishment figures show that the country's prosecutors are determined to root out corruption," said Wang Zhenchuan, Xinhua news agency quoted China's deputy chief prosecutor as saying. Wang was speaking at a conference on international cooperation in anti-corruption efforts, being held this week in Beijing.

Russian President Claims Spanish Corruption Issues Mean it is Ok for Russia to Allow Corruption

Who needs to watch reality shows when you can just do a google search on corruption and find this stuff - you can't make this up!

Apparently Russian President Putin has been criticized for allowing corruption, so he then says that if the Spaniards allow corruption, why should he be singled out?

However, the article says the embarrassed spaniards are now considering a pact between all political parties to fire corrupt officials immediately when discovered.  In contrast, as we have mentioned, Iraq's government still has a law where the Minister must approve any prosecution of any official in his Ministry accused of corruption.  Thus, amazingly, not many accused officials are prosecuted because the Minister (who also might be getting a cut) will not approve prosecutions.

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Published on Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/10/24/2003333168

Spain begins crackdown on municipal corruption

THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Tuesday, Oct 24, 2006, Page 6

Spain's ruling Socialists are to propose a zero-tolerance pact on municipal corruption just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin used a wave of Spanish town hall scandals to rebut accusations that he was not living up to European standards of democracy.

With fresh municipal corruption cases involving all parties emerging almost daily, Socialist party organizer Jose Blanco said that he would seek a cross-party agreement that officials implicated in corruption scandals should be sacked immediately.

Negotiations on a pact were scheduled to start yesterday, according to Spanish media reports.

Sarcastic Putin's sarcastic anti-Spanish outburst at a dinner on Friday with EU leaders in Lahti, Finland, was accompanied by criticisms of Italy's Mafia problems.

His comments made the front page of Spain's El Pais newspaper on Sunday.

Putin pointed to the southern resort town of Marbella -- where the mayor and former mayor have been jailed and thousands of illegal homes face demolition -- as well as other Spanish corruption cases.

El Pais said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had been "perplexed" by the comments.

Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi had been left "without words" when Putin pointed out that his country had invented the Mafia concept, the newspaper said.

Scandals Corruption scandals, some involving housing developments finished years ago, have erupted in Spain in recent weeks.

In the Madrid region alone, one in 12 town halls are embroiled in some kind of construction or corruption scandal, the newspaper Abc reported yesterday.

The Madrid region's planning chief, from the People's Party, and the Socialist mayor of the Madrid suburb of Ciempozuelos have lost their jobs as a result in the past two weeks.

Corruption allegations are even more frequent in areas where foreigners buy second homes.

Corruption in Nigeria - three articles

I TIVO BBC news everyday, and they periodically mention some worldwide corruption issue in the "news ticker" tape at the bottom of the screen.  Today it was Nigeria. 

Back in 2005, the UK's Tony Blair issued a futuristic plan for Africa, and the massive report mentioned corruption issues over 100 times (I did a word count search on the original report).  Nigeria is the source for the infamous Nigerian email and mail scams where a Nigerian sends a letter saying he has $5-million or more and needs to move it via an outsider's account to London.  He promises a percentage if the reader provides an account and some seed money.  Poof - the seed money is gone and the sucker is poorer.

But Nigeria is also known for just plain corruption where officials siphon off much of the foreign aid they are given.

Below are some articles on Nigerian corruption - notice they have finally set up an anti-corruption commission like Iraq's CPI, but have run into various barriers.

Of course, the issue is, why does the UN, US, UK etc provide foreign aid to such a country when they don't control corruption.   In the similar case of Iraq, the government still won't prosecute many of the pending corruption cases, and they still have a law that prosecution of an employee from a Ministry (like the Oil or Defense Ministry) cannot proceed without permission from the Minister in charge of that Ministry.  Both situations (and others) prevent strong enforcement of anti-corruption laws, so why does the US continue to give foreign Aid?

The first article describes Nigerian corruption and suggests the anti-corruption chief is only prosecuting enemies of the current President.  That is one thing that we haven't seen (to my knowledge) in Iraq.   The current Iraqi anti-corruption chief is known for his integrity and objectiveness.  If anything, all sides seem to complain about his enforcement.

And, in the second article published today, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz states the same issue about why give foreign aid to a corrupt country, but then gives credit to the same new Nigerian anti-corruption chief mentioned in article 1 for enhancing enforcement of anti-corruption regulations.  See the third article from 2005 which wails at the problems they had in 2005.

vj

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published 9/13/2006

The politics of Nigerian corruption

By Alex Last BBC News, Lagos

Nigeria is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Daily, low-level corruption is visible on the street; policeman extorting money from motorists to supplement their meagre wages.

But it is in the world of politics and government, where corruption has been most damaging.

For decades the government has accrued huge oil revenues, yet the country suffers from a lack of basic infrastructure, and tens of millions live in poverty.

At the same time, some politicians and their business associates have amassed personal fortunes.

Although accusations of graft have long been a feature of Nigerian politics, as elections approach early next year, the politics of corruption have taken on a new powerful role.

EFCC

For the past four years, the fight against corruption in Nigeria has been embodied in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) and its Chairman Nuhu Ribadu - a 46-year-old senior police officer.

The agency has had some successes, and Mr Ribadu has been praised both at home and abroad.

The EFCC says in the past two years it has recovered more than $5bn and has successfully prosecuted 82 people.

It has taken on internet crime and fraudsters. It has gone after a former chief of police, a government minister and an impeached state governor.

But despite highly publicised raids and investigations, when it comes to prosecutions, it is usually the lower level officials, businessmen and fraudsters who end up being convicted.

In part that is because some political offices, such as state governors and the president, carry immunity from prosecution.

But as election campaigns get under way, President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that he will use all legal means to stop "criminals and crooks" from taking the reigns of power in Nigeria.

In a recent interview, Mr Ribadu pledged to stop corrupt politicians running for office.

"Things are improving marginally now. But if you bring somebody who is a thief, they will feast on this money and take Nigeria to what it was before."

Raid

But the anti-corruption agency is persistently accused of only going after opponents of President Obasanjo, a charge Mr Ribadu denies.

As elections approach, new EFCC investigations and the accusations of political bias, are coming thick and fast.

Perhaps in response, the agency recently raided the offices of the new Nigerian corporation, Transcorp, which has close links to the president.

But one raid is unlikely to satisfy the critics.

Targets

Privately, supporters of Mr Ribadu say he is going after those he is allowed to, while building up dossiers on others who, for now, are "protected".

The latest and most serious contender to be scrutinised is Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who fell out publicly with the president when he opposed the campaign to allow Mr Obasanjo to run for a third term in office.

The vice-president is one of the leading candidates for the top job in next year's elections, but in a recent report by the EFCC, he is accused of fraud involving more than $100m in public funds.

An accusation he flatly denies.

He says he is the victim of a political conspiracy.

Panel

President Obasanjo used the report to form an Administrative Panel of Inquiry, consisting of a number of government ministers to indict the vice-president.

Crucially, under the constitution anyone indicted by an Administrative Panel is barred from running for high office.

If this tactic is pursued, the legitimacy of the president's panel looks set to be the subject of a fierce legal battle.

Some of the vice-president's supporters have said they will present evidence of corruption by the president, if he persists with the campaign against Mr Abubakar.

More generally, a lot will depend on the government-appointed electoral commission, which has the responsibility of screening candidates and deciding if they are technically allowed to stand.

If they decide to bar any of the big candidates from the race, either at the state or national level, there is the risk it would provoke violence.

This would be particularly dangerous in a country, which after decades of military rule, is struggling to keep ethnic and religious divisions in check.

Clean-up

Talking to people on the street in Lagos, many are supportive, and wryly amused by the idea that the top politicians would disqualify themselves by accusing each other of corruption.

People are desperate to see Nigerian politics cleaned up and very few politicians are considered to be clean.

Ultimately that is the real dilemma.

In a country where corruption is seen as endemic, an anti-corruption campaign used selectively as a political weapon is likely to provoke a bitter fight amongst the political elite.

And that in turn, could impact on Nigeria's pre-election stability.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5339030.stm

Published: 2006/09/13 06:59:07 GMT

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Published on AllAfrica news 10/20/2005

World Bank Says Corruption Threatens Poverty Battle, Commends EFCC

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
October 20, 2006
Posted to the web October 20, 2006

World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, said, on Tuesday, that corruption was threatening to undermine global efforts to fight the scourge of poverty, especially in poor African countries. But he also stressed that serious efforts were also being made by African countries to enhance transparency and accountability.

He made the comments at the 115th annual meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva.

"As legislators, you may be asked by your constituents why they should give money to Africa if it lines the pockets of corrupt leaders and fails to benefit the poor," he said.

"You may be asked why they should continue supporting Africa after some 300 billion dollar development aid went to the continent in the last 20 years with little results to show for it." But, on a more positive note, the World Bank chief noted that 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa had either signed or ratified the UN convention against corruption.

Some are "leading the way to a better governed Africa with stronger assurances than ever that development dollars will be used to improve the lives of the poorest".

Wolfowitz, a former senior official in the U.S. administration of President George Bush, pointed out that African leadership is increasingly aware of its responsibility and is pushing for reforms in their own countries.

He singled out Nigeria's Nuhu Ribabu, Executive Chairman of the EFCC, saying: "Ribadu is leading the bold efforts of the Nigerian government to confront corruption. "The work of his agency has already led to the recovery of some $5b dollars in stolen assets from corrupt officials and individuals. And two of his staff have been murdered, probably because of the work they were doing."

He told delegates that Ribadu said recently: "We know what corruption has cost us. It has denied us the value of our resources, both human and natural. It breeds injustice. It causes killings, the diseases that ravage us almost everywhere. This is not what we want, and this is not what we are going to allow to continue."

Wolfowitz added that there were many compelling reasons to support courageous leaders like Ribadu, the fore-most being that: "ultimately change cannot be imposed from outside.

"There must be local ownership; change has to be driven by the leaders and citizens of Africa who want to take control of their destiny and build a better future for their children." The World Bank official also commended the efforts of Education Minister, Obi Ezekwesili, to improve accountability.

"For those of you who argue that millions of development dollars have been squandered by corrupt leaders, I am here to tell you that that is changing, and it is changing dramatically for the better," he said.

"And for those of you who say that improving governance is a luxury that poor countries cannot afford, I am here to tell you that they cannot afford not to improve governance."

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Published 4/14/2005

Nigeria leader in corruption dare

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged anyone with details of corruption against him or his family to publish them.

He issued the challenge as part of his crackdown on corruption, which saw the former education minister and six other lawmakers charged with fraud this week.

Mr Obasanjo said that foreign experts had been hired to unearth allegations against him but they had found nothing.

Nigeria is seen as one of the world's most corrupt countries.

'Scott-free'

Mr Obasanjo argues that Nigeria will never benefit from debt relief until it shakes off its reputation for corruption.

I am told that members of the National Assembly said that if they passed the bill the way it was, they would all be behind bars President Obasanjo

But his recent crackdown, which has also seen the former police chief charged, has led to allegations being made against Mr Obasanjo and his family.

MP Bashir Idris Na Dabo was not impressed with Mr Obasanjo's challenge and demanded an audit into the petroleum ministry, headed by Mr Obasanjo for the past six years.

"We are going to take him up on this - we are not going to allow him to go scott-free," he said.

Mr Obasanjo said that his relatives could not expect to receive preferential treatment if they were found to be corrupt.

"My family knows where I stand on this issue. They all have a code of conduct. If they don't follow it, they will be treated like everyone else."

'Lobbying'

Mr Obasanjo again said that corruption was widespread among Nigeria's MPs, recalling the trouble he had getting a bill approved to set up an anti-corruption agency.

"I am told that members of the National Assembly said that if they passed the bill the way it was, they would all be behind bars."

On Tuesday, former Education Minister Fabian Osuji, denied charges that that he had paid bribes to lawmakers totalling 55m naira ($416,000, £220,000) to get an inflated budget passed.

Former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, and five other legislature members also denied the charges.

Despite pleading not guilty, Mr Osuji has told a senate committee that he arranged for education ministry funds to be paid to lawmakers in charge of reviewing his budget but said it was "lobbying" and not wrong.

Housing Minister Alice Mobolaji Osomo was also sacked this month after more than 200 properties were allocated to top officials rather than going on public sale.

Is this the beginning of the end of corruption in Nigeria? Or is it just the tip of the iceberg? Is corruption a major problem in your country?

Use the form to send us your comments.

A selection will be broadcast on the BBC's Focus on Africa programme on Saturday, 16 April, starting at 1705 GMT.

If President Obasanjo would go the whole hog of subjecting himself and his entire family to public scrutiny, then it is just a matter of time for corruption to take a flight out of Nigeria and a dawn of a new era which those of us in our late thirties and early forties never thought we can withness.
Olu Daramola, Nigeria Who does he think he is fooling? Is Election Rigging not corruption?
Emeka Vince Walker, Johannesburg, South Africa

The current campaign against corruption in Nigeria is a welcome development and the president deserves praise for daring the monster called corruption. The campaign is the good beginning to cleaning the augean stable that has rattled our psyche as a people. Whatever any one may say, the campaign is good and will lead to further revelations of how certain people have corruptly enriched themselves to the detriment of the citizenry and the nation. Kudos to the President for his courage.
Wole Akinyeye, Ibadan, Nigeria How I pray the recent events in bringing to book the corrupt culture in Nigeria society will go all the way through to the last man standing in Nigeria. Corruption is very endemic in Nigeria's society; you have to bribe your way to breath in the air. Obasanjo should not disappoint this time. It's high time we took this monster (corruption) by the horns, for the sake of future generations.
Remi Koleowo, Gillingham. UK

Obasanjo is just persecuting scapegoats - People who fall out of favour with him. In nigeria, everybody, including the most naive man on the street knows the major corrupt officers, what they do and where they live.
nonso chukwunonye, golders green, london

Nigeria has not really started fighting corruption because in my view, it still a little drop of water in the Ocean. The West could help fight corruption if they don't want more influx of Nigerians escaping poverty.
Maxwell, Zurich/Switzerland

If the President is sincere,he should start in his office.For us to believe him let him declare his asset publically.
Baba Alkali, Maiduguri and Nigeria

Corruption has become a way of life for many Nigerians, and most people cannot see the boundary lines anymore. People expect to be tipped to do their jobs, and in some cases will not even do their jobs unless they get these tips. It runs from the top right down to the very bottom. Good on Obasanjo for being brave enough to confront this.
Jacqui, Lagos Nigeria

Definitely it is not going to be the end of corruption in Nigeria but it is a very good begining. At least let that fear be in them. Almost all the rich men in the country today were former leaders or government functionaries, and their apparatus are very much on ground. The only option is to encourage and support Mr Obasanjo in his war against corruption. He should know that the battle will not be easy. He should also employ more women to sensetive positions, because the Nigerian men have failed us.
chuka okafor, lagos, nigeria