Category Archives: Announcement

Corruption, Sanctions, and the War in Ukraine: A Short Interview in Harvard Law Today

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My home institution’s in-house publication, Harvard Law Today, recently interviewed me on some of the topics we’ve been covering on this blog (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here) and on the KickBack podcast (here and here) related to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. As I tried to emphasize in the interview itself, I am very far from an expert in many of the specific issues at the intersection of corruption and the Russia-Ukraine war, but I tried to pull together succinctly some of what I’d learned from conversations with actual expert over the last couple of weeks. For those who are interested, you can find the interview here.

New Podcast Episode, Featuring Inna Melnykovska

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available. During the ongoing emergency in Ukraine, as Russia’s unprovoked military aggression throws the region and the world into crisis, my colleagues at the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN) and I are going to try as best as we can to feature on KickBack experts who can shed greater light on how issues related to corruption relate to the ongoing crisis. And rather than keeping to our usual schedule of releasing new episodes every two weeks, we will release new episodes as soon as they are available. In the new episode, I had the opportunity to speak to Inna Melnykovska, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Central European University. Professor Melnykovska is an expert on state-business relations and crony capitalism in Ukraine and Russia, and is working on a book project tentatively titled Global Money, Local Politics: Big Business, Capital Mobility and the Transformation of Crony Capitalism in Eurasia. Our podcast conversation focuses on her research in this area and its implications for the current crisis. We discuss the similarities and contrasts between the “crony capitalism” systems in Ukraine and Russia, the extent to which Ukrainian President Zelensky was pursuing policies that would reduce the influence of oligarchs on Ukrainian government, whether movement toward cleaner and more democratic government in Ukraine may have been perceived by Putin’s administration as a political threat, and whether (or when) we might hope that economic sanction on Russian elites and oligarchs might have a political impact. You can also find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations:

KickBack is a collaborative effort between GAB and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends. And if you have suggestions for voices you’d like to hear on the podcast, just send me a message and let me know.

A Message from Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Research and Education Center

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On my previous visits to Kyiv, I have had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with several of the outstanding scholars and researchers affiliated with the Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre (ACREC). This morning, ACREC a message to a list of people in the worldwide anticorruption research community, describing the situation in Ukraine and appealing for more international support. With ACREC’s permission, I am reproducing the message below:

Dear colleagues

Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre (ACREC) addresses you on the ninth day of the invasion of the russian federation.

All these days we have been trying our best to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine – to transfer funds, organize aid and necessary purchases. We also helped people in need and those who were forced to leave their homes.

Some of us still remain in the hottest spots of today’s war – Kyiv and Kharkiv.

You can see how russian troops are bombing Kyiv and its suburbs, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Enerhodar and it’s nuclear power plant. We are sure that many of you have been to these cities and remember them only for the best. Help us save these cities, their people and Ukraine. Call on your governments to close the skies over Ukraine in order to prevent further casualties and to help neutralize military aggression. This is a war not only against Ukraine, but also against the whole civilized world. Putin’s terror will not stop exclusively on the territory of Ukraine, after some time it may be repeated with other neighboring countries of russia. Ukraine is only the first outpost on the path to a peaceful Europe. Ukraine will fall – Europe will fall.

We, as a think tank at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, appeal to you to call on your governments to support Ukraine in every possible way and to prevent further losses among the military and civilian population of our country by:

  • closing the skies over Ukraine as it was done during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war;
  • further implementation and strengthening of sanctions against russia, its leadership and its satellite countries, family members of the russian leadership;
  • sanctions against those associated with the leadership of the aggressor country should be sought separately: https://putinwallets.org/
  • depriving Russia of the status of a member of the world’s leading organizations, such as the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.

If you have friends and / or colleagues from russia, please spread the truth about their military aggression against Ukraine by their state.

We also sending you the links on:

  • website for fundraising for the needs of the Ukrainian army: https://savelife.in.ua/. In addition, we encourage you to join the volunteer initiatives in your countries to help Ukrainian citizens in need;
  • website with news in English about the course of military aggression in Ukraine: https://edition.cnn.com/; https://www.bbc.com/russian;
  • website for the search for prisoners of war and victims of military aggression: https://gdemoysyn.com/.

If you have any questions, you can contact us – we will help with any kind of information.

Best regards,
ACREC Team

New Podcast Episode, Featuring Oksana Huss and Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available. During the ongoing emergency in Ukraine, as Russia’s unprovoked military aggression throws the region and the world into crisis, my colleagues at the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN) and I are going to try as best as we can to feature on our podcast experts who can shed greater light on how issues related to corruption relate to the war, the larger political context, and the international response. In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak to two ICRN members: Oksana Huss, a research fellow at the University of Bologna, and Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez, Associate Professor at Osaka University. Our conversation begins with Oksana explaining Ukraine’s transformation since the Maidan Revolution in 2014, particularly democratic and anticorruption reforms under President Zelensky’s administration, and the cultural, political, and economic threat that developments in Ukraine posed to Russian elites and the Putin regime. Joseph then discusses Russia’s use of so-called “strategic corruption” to extend Russian influence in the West. Then, after recognizing the heroism of the Ukrainian army in slowing the Russian advance, our conversation turns to the impact of sanctions on Russia and Russia’s political and economic elites, and the extent to which cracking down on the dirty money may help counter Russian aggression. You can also find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations: KickBack is a collaborative effort between GAB and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends! And if you have suggestions for voices you’d like to hear on the podcast, just send me a message and let me know.

Transparency International Ukraine’s Call on International Companies to Stop Working in Russia

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Transparency International’s Ukraine Chapter (on whose Board I serve) recently posted the following message on its social media accounts, which I am reposting here:

Transparency International Ukraine
📢 We call for international companies to stop working in Russia and stop financing the war in Ukraine.
Economic sanctioning of Russia is already imposed by governments of the EU, US, Canada and other countries. However, fighting Putin’s aggression is not only the matter of national governments. International businesses have to make their contribution.
☝️ Every tax penny that international companies pay to the Russian budget costs Ukrainians lives. This money is being spent for weaponizing the Russian army, which attacks both Ukrainian military and civilians.
😢 Over four days 352 civilians were killed, over 1600 wounded. Russians hit apartment buildings, daycare facilities, buses with civilians and ambulances. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced out of their homes to stay alive.
Supporting the russian regime is unacceptable for companies that value human lives.
Facing financial risks connected with dismissal of the Russian market is nothing in comparison with reputational losses.
🙌 You can also tell businesses that you are against their work in Russia!
🔹 We prepared a list of well-known companies so you could address them publicly https://bit.ly/sbir_companies
We will update it
🔹 And with regard to some of the companies, we have explicitly explained how doing business in Russia affects the civilian population https://bit.ly/sbir_photos
🔹 Select the company that you would like to appeal to and tag it in posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For example,
@CompanyX, your taxes in #russia goes for the shelling of civilians in Ukraine. It’s time to stop doing business there, isn’t it?
Templates of the text for such posts you can find here: https://bit.ly/sbir_texts
The more people we are, the louder our voice is! Join us💪

New Podcast Episode, Featuring Caryn Peiffer

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available. In this week’s episode, my Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN) colleague Nils Kobis interviews Caryn Peiffer, a Lecturer in International Public Policy and Governance at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies. After explaining how she became interested in the study of corruption, Dr. Peiffer–drawing on her joint work with Professor Heather Marquette–discusses various theoretical “lenses” for understanding corruption (principal-agent, collective action, and functionality), and how these different approaches to understanding corruption might shed light on different aspects of crafting anticorruption policies. The interview then turns to how to craft effective anticorruption messages and awareness-raising efforts, including how such efforts can go wrong, and how they can go right. Toward the end of the interview, Dr. Peiffer discusses some of her other research on reducing bribery in specific sectors, such as law enforcement and health care. You can also find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations: KickBack is a collaborative effort between GAB and the ICRN. If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends! And if you have suggestions for voices you’d like to hear on the podcast, just send me a message and let me know.

Anticorruption Bibliography–February 2022 Update

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An updated version of my anticorruption bibliography is available from my faculty webpage. A direct link to the pdf of the full bibliography is here, and a list of the new sources added in this update is here. Additionally, the bibliography is available in more user-friendly, searchable form at Global Integrity’s Anti-Corruption Corpus website. As always, I welcome suggestions for other sources that are not yet included, including any papers GAB readers have written.

New Podcast, Featuring Torplus Yomnak

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A new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available. In this week’s episode, I interview Torplus Yomnak (who uses the English name Nick), an assistant professor of economics at the Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Economics in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as the co-founder and chief advisor of the HAND Social Enterprise, a Thai civil society organization focused on anticorruption and good governance issues. He is also one of the recipients of the U.S. State Department’s 2021 “International Anti-Corruption Champions” awards. In our conversation, Nick and I discuss his efforts to combine academic anticorruption research with practical real-world projects, as well as the main corruption challenges and opportunities facing Thailand today. You can also find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations:

KickBack is a collaborative effort between GAB and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends! And if you have suggestions for voices you’d like to hear on the podcast, just send me a message and let me know.

New Podcast, Featuring Elizabeth David-Barrett

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After our holiday hiatus, I’m pleased to announce that a new episode of KickBack: The Global Anticorruption Podcast is now available. In this week’s episode, my Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN) colleagues Nils Kobis and Christopher Starke interview Elizabeth David-Barrett, Professor of Governance and Integrity and Director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex. In the interview, Professor David-Barrett discusses the concept of “state capture,” the mechanisms by which corrupt actors may capture the state, and the new forms of state capture that have been emerging in many countries, as well as how the concept of state capture relates to lobbying and machine politics. Later in the interview, she addresses various questions related to anticorruption reform measures, including the unintended consequences that some well-intentioned reforms might sometimes have, and where up-and-coming researchers can make the most valuable contributions to the anticorruption struggle. You can also find both this episode and an archive of prior episodes at the following locations: KickBack is a collaborative effort between GAB and the ICRN. If you like it, please subscribe/follow, and tell all your friends! And if you have suggestions for voices you’d like to hear on the podcast, just send me a message and let me know.

Papers from Conference on Empirical Approaches To Anti-Money Laundering And Financial Crime Suppression

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The papers to be delivered at the Central Bank of the Bahamas third annual international conference on Empirical Approaches to Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime Suppression are now available here.  The conference brings together a mixture of academics and practitioners to assess what we know and don’t know about curbing money laundering. The conference schedule and instructions on virtual attendance is here.

Papers likely of special interest to GAB readers include –

  • Enabling African loots: Tracking the laundering of Nigerian kleptocrats’ ill-gotten gains
  • Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows
  • Complex Ownership Structures: Addressing the Risks for Beneficial Ownership Transparency
  • Dirty Money: How Banks Influence Financial Crime
  • Does Changing the Rules Change Behaviour? Comparing Regulatory Reform and Behavioral Outcomes in Shell Company Transparency