Enablers of Malign Finance

The past decade has seen an upsurge in authoritarian regimes using corruption and dirty money to advance their perceived strategic interests, from consolidation of repressive kleptocracy in their own countries to weaponization of corruption abroad, from Russian covert financing for populist political parties to Chinese bribery throughout the Belt and Road Initiative. Only more recently—including with the Pandora Papers—has attention shifted toward ways the financial and legal systems of democratic countries enable corruption and kleptocracy. As the Summit for Democracy brings together the world’s democracies, the focus should be on how to improve our own systems to build resilience against malign finance, including well-enforced transparency requirements for Western lawyers, trust administrators, real estate agents, and other enablers of malign finance.