Chen Shui-bian, (click here) the former president of Taiwan, forfeited his Manhattan condo and his home in the scenic hills of Virginia’s wine country, just outside Charlottesville. The government said both were purchased with bribes paid to Taiwan’s then-first lady, Wu Shu-chen, by a Taiwanese financial services company seeking to expand its business.
Money from the bribes traveled through shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and Nevis and into Swiss bank accounts controlled by the couple’s son and used to conceal the family’s purchase of properties in the United States.
Both Mr. Chen and his wife were sentenced in 2009 in Taiwan to 20 years in prison for bribery, embezzlement and money laundering. Mr. Chen was granted a medical parole in 2015. Wu Shu-chen received a similar medical release in 2011....
Corruption at this level can create paid militias that will deny citizens their human rights. It is completely wrong to allow such corruption to exist no matter the country or social standards.
February 16, 2016
By Leslie Wayne
...The turnabout in Mr. Obiang’s fortunes (click here) is part of an effort by the federal government to recover assets it says were stolen by foreign officials — dictators, politicians and ruling elites — and laundered in the United States. Since its start in 2010, the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative has grown to include a dozen government lawyers and teams from the F.B.I. and Homeland Security....
The United States can and should enforce every opportunity to litigate corruption, in the private sector as well as government. It is the best prevention of government instability while lives are protected. It takes money to purchase small arms and such weapons as machetes.
Starve the dark market of arms and munitions. There needs to be a permanent understanding internationally, the USA will seek out and prosecute corruption at all levels of government and the private sector. The idea the initiatives should stop at the borders of the USA is not correct either. If there is knowledge of corruption that does not effect the USA, there needs to be further initiatives through international organizations capable of carrying out the same outcomes.
Additionally, when the USA passes on information to international corruption and it is not acted on, there should be public disclosure to the American people. Such lethargy in the international realm won't be tolerated by the American people at large. Transparency is the best weapon to end corruption, illegal weapon sales and the deaths of innocent people. The American people will bring an understanding to their governing representatives to bring action against such heinous dynamics.
Currently, China is struggling to elevate their people into a large middle class. The Oligarchs are more interested in buying American companies and property than elevating the Chinese people. I consider that as much corruption as the sales of weapons to militias. There are many ways the populations of the world can be elevated into happy and healthier middle class people.
Think about it. It has been decades power players have denied quality of life to nations of people. It has to end and in a better understanding the American people can bring pressure to bring about the result we all seek.
Disrupting peace both domestically and internationally is the enemy. Peace provides human rights, war promotes spending away from citizens and their quality of life. We know that is the truth.
Corruption at this level can create paid militias that will deny citizens their human rights. It is completely wrong to allow such corruption to exist no matter the country or social standards.
February 16, 2016
By Leslie Wayne
...The turnabout in Mr. Obiang’s fortunes (click here) is part of an effort by the federal government to recover assets it says were stolen by foreign officials — dictators, politicians and ruling elites — and laundered in the United States. Since its start in 2010, the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative has grown to include a dozen government lawyers and teams from the F.B.I. and Homeland Security....
The United States can and should enforce every opportunity to litigate corruption, in the private sector as well as government. It is the best prevention of government instability while lives are protected. It takes money to purchase small arms and such weapons as machetes.
Starve the dark market of arms and munitions. There needs to be a permanent understanding internationally, the USA will seek out and prosecute corruption at all levels of government and the private sector. The idea the initiatives should stop at the borders of the USA is not correct either. If there is knowledge of corruption that does not effect the USA, there needs to be further initiatives through international organizations capable of carrying out the same outcomes.
Additionally, when the USA passes on information to international corruption and it is not acted on, there should be public disclosure to the American people. Such lethargy in the international realm won't be tolerated by the American people at large. Transparency is the best weapon to end corruption, illegal weapon sales and the deaths of innocent people. The American people will bring an understanding to their governing representatives to bring action against such heinous dynamics.
Currently, China is struggling to elevate their people into a large middle class. The Oligarchs are more interested in buying American companies and property than elevating the Chinese people. I consider that as much corruption as the sales of weapons to militias. There are many ways the populations of the world can be elevated into happy and healthier middle class people.
Think about it. It has been decades power players have denied quality of life to nations of people. It has to end and in a better understanding the American people can bring pressure to bring about the result we all seek.
Disrupting peace both domestically and internationally is the enemy. Peace provides human rights, war promotes spending away from citizens and their quality of life. We know that is the truth.
