World Wide Corruption Threatens Economical Recovery
Posted on 6 December 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Society
In a recent Transparency International report on worldwide corruption it was revealed that inadequate laws expose whistleblowers and hinder the fight against corruption.
The worst offending countries were Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sudan. The least corrupt country was New Zealand, followed by Sweden, Finland, Australia and Canada.
With modern technologies world corruption has escalated to frightening levels and threatens global economic recovery.
Corruption, which is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, takes on many forms, such as bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage, graft and embezzlement. These activities can involve organized crime in areas such as drug trafficking, piracy, money laundering and trafficking in human beings, as well as dealing in blood diamonds.
Global bribery alone is estimated to involve approximately 1 trillion US dollars annually.
Here is a short list of well known corruption incidents:
- Osama bin Laden has reaped millions of dollars from the sale of blood diamonds mined in Sierra Leone, as have the authorities of Zimbabwe.
- In 2008 Israeli prime minister resigned amid allegations of corruption. A US businessman admitted having paid Ehud Ohmer thousands of dollars.
- In 2007 it was revealed that Chevron made illegal kick-backs to Iraq for oil purchased in 2001/2 under the United Nations’ oil-for-food program.
- In 2006 Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian was saved from corruption charges only because the law gave him presidential immunity.
- Since independence four decades ago, it is alleged that Nigeria’s rulers stole, or misused $400 billion. This is the equivalent of the total amount of western aid to all of Africa in the last 40 years.
- As far back as 2001, it was believed the late dictator Gerneral Sani Abacha had deposited approximately $700m in banks in both Switzerland and London.
- In 2004 the leading faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization began to hunt for millions of dollars in assets hidden by the late leader, Yasser Arafat.
- In 2003 it had been revealed that Arafat had diverted $900m in public funds to a special account he controlled.
- It was reported in 2004 the oil-for-food program is believed to have been subverted by Saddam Hussein’s regime and used to prop up the dictator.
- Saddam ordered his son to withdraw $1billion cash from the Iraqi Central Bank just hours before the first bombs fell on Baghdad.
- Foreign exchange reserves were found to be missing $480m from the Bank of China in 2002.
- In 2000 Chinese tycoon, Mou Qizhong, was sentenced to life imprisonment for having illegally obtained state assets worth $75m.
Then of course you arrive at 2008 with the largest ponzi scam ever perpetrated by 71 year old Bernard Madoff who is now serving a 150 year prison sentence, for his $50billion scam.
In December 2009 a high-flying attorney, Scott Rothstein, was arrested and charged with federal racketeering and fraud charges, involving a $1billion ponzi scheme. Did he learn nothing from Madoff’s experience?
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