插圖來源：https://www.codastory.com/author/oliverbullough/
（前言：以下文章解釋不義之財如何摧毀民主制度。）
Why the future of democracy depends
on controlling illicit finance
Oliver Bullough
26 February 2025
Excerpt: OLIGARCHS CAN’T HANDLE THE
TRUTH. It was partly the revelation of how gross the fallen kleptocrats’
greed had been; it was partly the realisation of how complicit Western enablers
had been in the corruption of these kleptocrats; it was partly how Russia’s
bought-and-paid-for proxies used blatant lies as cover for its annexation of
Ukrainian territory; and it was partly the way that corruption had crushed
Ukraine’s ability to respond. Ultimately, it was the combination of all four
factors working together that convinced me there was nothing more important to
the future of democracy than bringing illicit finance under control. This is
why it was so appalling to see the president of the United States repeating the
Kremlin’s lies about Ukraine last week. Corruption of truth plus corruption of
morals plus corruption of money equals the destruction of democracy.
Why the West is failing to fight
corruption
Oliver Bullough
5 February 2025
https://www.codastory.com/oligarchy/why-the-west-is-failing-to-fight-corruption/
Excerpt: This friend’s experience
made me wonder about the lessons that US allies will be learning from the last
few presidential terms when it comes to financial crime. Donald Trump marched
them all up to the top of one hill in 2016-20, then Joe Biden marched them up
another in 2020-24, and now Trump wants them to head off somewhere else
entirely. What’s the lesson? Well, obviously, it’s “do the minimum, do it late,
and it’s all a waste of time anyway.”
And this is bad, because – partly owing to U.S. diplomatic clout, and partly owing to the global role of the dollar – tackling financial crime or tax evasion without leadership from Washington DC has always proved hard/impossible. And now Trump has sacked 17 inspectors general from key federal agencies, that is independent, non-partisan watchdogs whose job it is to weed out government corruption, fraud and mismanagement. Instead, that effort is being led by Trump cronies and oligarchs like Elon Musk seeking to score political points. It’s going to take a long time before anyone thinks it’s worth listening to the U.S. about combating corruption, no matter who’s in charge.
Why
politicians are such couch potatoes when it comes to corruption
Oliver
Bullough
4
October 2023
Excerpt:
I had a meeting recently with a think tank employee who was tasked with coming
up with some policy ideas for a senior British politician to announce at a
party conference. As you are no doubt aware, Britain has a bit of a dirty money
problem, so I was delighted to sit down with them. For anyone who’s read this
newsletter before, you’ll have noticed that I regularly talk about the need to
adequately resource law enforcement, so that’s what I led with. I described
how ordinary police forces can’t investigate fraud because they lack trained
officers, and how the national-level agencies fail to prosecute kleptocracy for
the same reasons. If the politician wanted Britain to stop being “butler to the
world,” what they really needed to do was announce a vast increase in funding
and pledge to maintain funding levels for the foreseeable future.
“That’s
not going to get them any headlines though, is it?” the think tanker replied.
“We need something new.”
I
did try to suggest some legal changes, but my heart wasn’t really in it because
I’d suddenly spotted what the problem was, and it seemed to have resonance far
beyond the U.K.
Our
governments are like couch potatoes who are determined to get fit. They are
unhealthy, they know it, and they know what the solution is: exercise. In
furtherance of that strategy, they buy a treadmill. This gets them a good
headline, and they like it. So they buy more fitness equipment: a stationary
bicycle, a StairMaster, a rowing machine, a pair of running shoes that will
improve performance, athleisure wear that wicks away sweat, some of those leg
warmers that Jane Fonda wore in her workout videos, and so on. Every time they
buy something, they say that it’s proof of their commitment to get fit, and
headline writers praise them for it.
But
at some point, they’ve got enough fitness equipment. That’s when they need to
start exercising, but that’s also when the whole calculation changes. Because
exercise is difficult and it’s not going to win any positive coverage. In fact,
it could well do the opposite: If enforcement agencies bring the kind of
long and complex prosecutions required to combat financial crime, they’re
likely to make mistakes, and then the politicians will get criticized, and
that’s no fun at all. It’s far safer to announce a new legislative initiative,
and leave the sweating to someone else at some point in the ever-receding
future.
Is there a word for this? Short-termism isn’t right, but I can’t think of another term for a feedback loop that actively militates against long-term action being taken. I am, however, an optimist (even when pessimists win, they lose, as someone probably once said) and intend to remain one. Financial crime is a tax on our societies, enriching criminals and immiserating everyone else. Corruption is a force multiplier for kleptocrats. Tax evasion is weakening our public services. It is so obvious that tackling these linked curses should be a priority that, at some point, even politicians will realize it.
Creating
a culture of corruption
Oliver
Bullough
11
June 2025
https://www.codastory.com/oligarchy/creating-a-culture-of-corruption/
Intro: There are two options for criminals in a democracy who don’t want to go to jail. The first is to launch a large-scale campaign to legalise whatever crime it is that you want to commit. This is hard, slow, laborious and, in most cases, impossible. The second is to not get caught. This is not necessarily easy either, but it’s a lot easier when law enforcement agencies are small, embattled and under-funded.
The
300,000 or so financial institutions subject to regulations in the United
States have to report any suspicions they have about transactions, as well as
reports of large cash payments, to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or
FinCEN. The idea is that their reports will alert investigators to crimes while
they’re going on, and help the goodies catch the baddies.
Why Trump torpedoed global tax
justice
Oliver Bullough
29 January 2025
https://www.codastory.com/oligarchy/why-trump-torpedoed-global-tax-justice/
Excerpt: With all the current talk
of an American oligarchy, I’ve been wondering what we now mean when we say “oligarch.” The
word comes from the Ancient Greek oligos, meaning “few”, via Latin and
mediaeval French, but its modern meaning in English owes more to 1990s
Russians, who adopted the word to describe the architects of what David
Hoffman, in his book “The Oligarchs”, called “a warped protocapitalism in which
a few hustlers became billionaires and masters of the state.” As for
the masters of the U.S. state – well, Donald Trump is the richest American
president in history and, should he get his way with his Cabinet picks, will
preside over the richest administration in history. The imbalance is so
pronounced even some turkeys are voting for Christmas, with a recent poll of
G20 millionaires showing that 63% of those surveyed believe the “influence of
the super rich on Trump’s presidency is a threat to global stability.” The
solution, even some of the richest among us argue, is to tax the super rich.
But first, a sincere apology, with
the emphasis on sincere.
SORRY
I apologise if Mark Zuckerberg was offended by me calling
him an oligarch, as he apparently was when Joe Biden implied it in his
valedictory warning.
Comrade Zuckerberg’s dismay is
understandable. Russia’s oligarchs were extremely rich and rapacious. And they
have, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, been subject to
tens of billions of dollars in sanctions by the U.S., EU, UK and others.
Whereas all the lovely Mr. Zuckerberg has done is run a social network that spreads
violence, fraud and misinformation and given him a personal fortune currently
estimated at $233 billion.
Personally I think we should probably stop using the word oligarch
to describe Russia’s super-rich now anyway. Ever since Vladimir Putin cemented
his control over the country, not least by arresting the then-very-wealthy
Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003, Russia’s business leaders do not interfere in
politics at all and just do what they’re told. Dictatorships after all only
have room for one leader, not a few, no matter how wealthy.
The age of the
multi-centibillionaire
How the uber wealthy damage
democracy, obstruct transparency and enable kleptocrats
By Oliver Bullough
15 January 2025
https://www.codastory.com/oligarchy/the-age-of-the-multi-centibillionaire/
Excerpt: Well, Donald Trump’s back
in the White House, Vladimir Putin is still waging his horrific campaign
against the Ukrainian nation, and too many governments are blaming foreigners
instead of oligarchs for the collapsing state of public services. Back in 1993, the
then Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin observed, after yet another
policy failure, “хотели как лучше получилось как всегда”. Literally translated,
it means “we wanted the best, but it turned out like always.” But I’ve never found an English version that fully
captures the poetic irony of the Russian original.
THE NEW CLASS OF
MULTI-CENTIBILLIONAIRES
In 2020, I marvelled at the concept of the
“centibillionaire,” someone whose wealth was worth more than $100 billion. Back then, the OG centibillionaire –
Jeff “Amazon” Bezos — had just gained his first comrades, ushering in a whole
new class of the super-rich.
It’s not even half a decade later, and that already looks hopelessly dated. Pah, everyone and his gran has got $100 billion these days. Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison have already seen their net worth vault past $200 billion, while Elon Musk has more than double that again. This, I think, makes Musk the richest man who’s ever lived, since the previous presumed holder of the title – Mansa Musa, the 14th-century emperor of Mali – owned a mere $400 billion in current terms, much of which he spent on a spectacular pilgrimage to Mecca.
相關的文章：
Kleptocracy（盜賊統治）
2021 年 8 月 20 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2021/08/kleptocracy.html
節錄：盜賊統治 (Kleptocracy) 跟洗黑錢活動關係密切，有如連體嬰，或錢幣的兩面。Kleptocrats 是指貪污腐敗的當權者（竊國者），這個詞經常在英語傳媒對於洗黑錢活動的調查報導中出現。金錢無國界，竊國者透過離岸公司及複雜的股權結構，把不義之財轉移至對資產提供較佳保障的西方國家，然後隱藏起來。竊國者要保護自己的權力以及家族利益，必定會全力摧毀本國的法治及設法打壓公民社會，同一時間卻享受著西方國家所提供的法律保障，卑鄙無恥，對不對？
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