Every year corruption sends more than $ 2 trillion in smoke, according to an OECD study. Yet international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who should not miss this deficit, not only seem to be unaware of anything, but they continue to fill the cash of corrupt states with loans and financial aid. As Jay Newman of Wall Street Juornal points out, the taxes paid by citizens and serving to support international organizations end up into a stream of corruption that enriches a few and damages many others.
Al Capone has much to teach the would-be pursuers of today’s global kleptocrats. Big Al eluded capture for murder and mayhem so effectively that frustrated prosecutors came up with a novel way to jail him: for tax fraud after a lifestyle audit. How did a man without a bank account who never filed a tax return afford a $39,000 phone bill?
In government and business, lifestyle audits are central to detecting fraud. When an employee’s spending exceeds his income, basic math reveals illicit enrichment.
The modern world is awash in Capones, but the most brazen don’t run brothels, guns or moonshine. They run countries. Many even get generous financial support from American taxpayers. Far from turning a blind eye to this corruption, the wealthiest countries oversee a labyrinthine system of financial institutions that inadvertently enable international crime.
By Jay Newman – Originally published by the Wall Street Journal.
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