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Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. President Zelensky appears to be attempting to rectify that situation by reining in the oligarchs. If he is successful, the west should consider following suit.
Ukraine passes sweeping new ‘anti-oligarch’ law, critics say restrictions
will be used to target Zelensky’s political opponents
23 Sep, 2021 15:35
Ukraine’s parliament has voted through a flagship bill that its proponents say will clip the wings of well-heeled tycoons attempting to exert control over the country’s lawmakers and set up a new register of purported oligarchs.
On Thursday, deputies in the Verkhovna Rada backed the proposals, designed to reduce the omnipresent role money plays in Kiev’s political and public life. The new law is intended to help “prevent threats to national security associated with the excessive influence of persons with disproportionate economic and political weight in public life,” whom it describes as “oligarchs.”
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, which has been behind a series of decisions to sanction opposition-supporting businesspeople and target anti-government news outlets in recent weeks, will establish a list of those it deems to fall into the new category.
Wealthy citizens will fall foul of the rules and face inclusion in the register if they meet three of four conditions, including having influence over the media, participating in public life, receiving funds from monopolistic companies, or having income of over a million times the country’s annual living wage. Those deemed to be oligarchs will be barred from donating to political parties and funding campaigning.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the law is just the first step in cracking down on wealthy political figures. “This is about creating a cornerstone for countering the influence of oligarchs,” he said when the bill was unveiled in June.
However, critics have expressed concern that the law will not be applied equally to all those who meet the criteria and, instead, could be leveled solely at those critical of Zelensky’s government. Vladimir Bruter, a Moldovan political scientist who works with the International Institute for Humanitarian and Social Research and is a member of Russia’s influential Valdai Discussion Club think tank, told Moscow’s Izvestiya newspaper there were serious risks of officials using it to abuse their power.
“This is an instrument to apply pressure to those the authorities don’t want,” he said. According to Bruter, Kiev will be able to designate political opponents as oligarchs and effectively bar them at will from politics. “The attempt to create some kind of Ukrainian definition of what an oligarch is deserves every condemnation,” he added.
Earlier this year, Kiev’s officials ordered the arrest of the leader of the country’s largest opposition party, wealthy businessman Viktor Medvedchuk. Prosecutors have refused to disclose details of the allegations against him, but they are believed to relate to financial interests in Crimea. Medvedchuk has said his arrest amounts to “political” persecution, and has accused Zelensky of trying to establish a “dictatorship.”
A number of Russian-language television channels belonging to one of the opposition leader’s fellow party members, tycoon Taras Kozak, were also shuttered under orders from the National Security and Defense Council. Kiev claims the issue is “not about free speech,” but instead about countering supposed Russian influence, despite their content being made domestically for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Almost all of those living in the country have a command of the language, and at least a third say they speak it as their native language at home.
JPMorgan facing oil bribery probe in Brazil – media
23 Sep, 2021 07:00
An investigation is underway in Brazil into whether JPMorgan Chase took part in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme, dating back to 2011, involving state-run oil company Petrobras.
Anything Petrobras is involved in is likely to have a certain stench about it.
That’s according to an exclusive report by Reuters, which cited court documents and anonymous law enforcement sources. The documents include email messages between alleged co-conspirators, witness testimony, and bank records.
Police are reportedly looking into purchases of roughly 300,000 barrels of Petrobras fuel oil by JPMorgan in 2011. They aim to determine if the banking giant secured shipments of Petrobras fuel at artificially low prices by routing bribe payments to employees on Petrobras’ trading desk through a network of middlemen. They also want to find out if the alleged bribery continued in subsequent years, the sources said.
Among the court documents is witness testimony from a former Petrobras fuel trader named Rodrigo Berkowitz, who refers to two fuel cargoes that were sold to a JPMorgan unit.
Petrobras said in an email to Reuters it has "zero tolerance in relation to fraud and corruption." However, US and Brazilian authorities have alleged that some Petrobras traders took bribes from counterparties for more than a decade through 2018. In return, those traders allegedly purchased fuel at inflated prices or sold it at a discount.
In 2020, JPMorgan agreed to pay more than $920 million and admitted wrongdoing to settle US market manipulation probes into its trading of metals futures and Treasury securities.
Hunter Biden sought $2 million annual retainer from donors to
help get Obama-Biden admin to unfreeze Libyan assets – media
23 Sep, 2021 23:57
in August 2020. © Reuters
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter reportedly tried to shake down Democrat donors for a $2 million annual retainer and “success fees” to help persuade the Obama-Biden administration to unfreeze up to $15 billion in Libyan assets.
Hunter Biden sought the fees in 2015, after the donors requested his help on freeing up assets that the Obama-Biden administration had frozen before Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi was murdered by NATO-backed rebels in 2011, Business Insider reported on Thursday.
The media outlet cited recently obtained emails, including one in which the donors discussed Hunter Biden’s influence as the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden. “Since he travels with dad, he is connected everywhere in Europe and Asia where MQ [Gaddafi] and the LIA [Libyan Investment Authority] had money frozen,” donor Sam Jauhari told his associate, Sheikh Mohammed al-Rahbani. “He said he has access to highest level in PRC [China], he can help there.”
Jauhari, who backed Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, and al-Rahbani reportedly have business interests in the Persian Gulf. Al-Rahbani, who is chairman of Saudi Arabian manufacturer SAFID, was accused of trying to illegally give $850,000 for then-President Barack Obama’s January 2013 inauguration through a straw donor.
Business Insider said it appears that Hunter Biden’s Libya deal was never consummated.
Hunter's References
In one of the emails, Jauhari said he had met with Hunter Biden, whom he referred to as “#2 son” (the vice president’s eldest son, Beau, died later that year). “He wants to hire his own people,” the donor said. “It can be close circle of people for confidentiality. His dad is deciding to run or not.”
He also noted the Biden family’s connections with the UN World Food Program and members of the Obama-Biden Cabinet, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry.
However, Jauhari also cited some drawbacks to hiring the vice president’s son: “His negatives are that he is alcoholic, drug addict, kicked out of US Army [actually the US Navy Reserves] for cocaine, chasing low-class hookers, constantly needs money, liquidity problems and many more headaches.” He suggested that al-Rahbani meet with him in London or Switzerland “to decide next steps.”
The Business Insider story marks the second time this week that a mainstream media outlet has dished dirt on the Biden family’s alleged influence-peddling. Politico on Tuesday promoted a newly released book written by one of its reporters, who independently verified several key emails on a laptop that Hunter Biden had left at a repair shop in Delaware.
Ironically, when the New York Post released a bombshell report in October 2020 detailing the Biden family’s alleged influence-peddling in Ukraine and China – citing the same emails – Politico was among the mainstream media outlets that tried to discredit the article as “Russian disinfo.”
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