CORRUPTION NEWSThe day Russian money didn’t freeze – despite international sanctions 07 Mar 2022, 16:08 By Ilya ShumanovFirst published on The Wilson Center Russia’s recognising the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, became a formal pretext for the collective West to impose restrictions on Russia in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The negative consequences of such a scenario had been discussed Read more >
PRESS RELEASES Transparency International responds to the attack against Ukraine 25 Feb 2022, 9:52 Issued by Transparency International Corruption fuels conflict and insecurity globally, and we are now seeing its effects acutely in the case of Russia and Ukraine. Leading democracies have facilitated this conflict by allowing kleptocrats to further their interests and power across the West. Just last week, Transparency International reported on a German state foundation secretly Read more >
INVESTIGATION Eight years for errant CFO with series of local govt-related graft charges 14 Dec 2021, 9:55 By Kwazi Dlamini A unique set of events played out in two Free State courts last week, with one local municipality right at the centre of it. The chief financial officer (CFO) of Nketoana Municipality, Xolani Malindi, made his first court appearance on 8 December, facing fraud charges, while former CFO Vincent Mkhefa was on Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 5 06 Oct 2021, 11:00 With so many lucrative avenues for criminals to choose from nowadays, the fact that international wildlife crime (IWT) and the smuggling of wildlife products continues to increase is a measure of the vast sums of money to be made from this illegal practice. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for example, which it spelled out in its 2020 World Wildlife Crime Report, “the Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 4 06 Aug 2021, 12:43 Image: Wilson Lau, TRAFFIC A humble marine mollusc, Haliotis midae, has been the inadvertent cause of one of South Africa’s biggest poaching/smuggling challenges. The largest abalone in South Africa, it is known locally as perlemoen, from the Dutch meaning ‘mother of pearl’. Occurring naturally along the South African coastline, perlemoen is nothing more than a Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 3 27 Jul 2021, 15:26 A new study titled Convergence of wildlife crime with other forms of organised crime, released in May 2021 by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), sheds light on this phenomenon of crime convergence, which has been noticed more and more over the last two decades. The report shows that criminal networks are dealing in wildlife Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS IFF tracker identifies SA’s main vulnerability as outward foreign investment 15 Jun 2021, 8:35 Image: Michael Kuhlmann for UNCTAD Over one trillion dollars. That’s the amount of money that Africa is estimated to have lost in illicit financial flows (IFFs) over the past 50 years (Kar and Cartwright-Smith, 2010; Africa Growth Initiative, 2020). The current estimate is an annual amount of around $50-billion, and possibly more – a significant Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS Algorithms and artificial intelligence as an anti-corruption tool 23 Mar 2021, 15:10 By Janine Erasmus Fifty years ago the concept might have been taken from a science fiction plot. Now it’s one of the new technologies that become more sophisticated as time passes. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms to track down suspicious activity is a reality – but can we trust them to reveal illicit financial Read more >
CORRUPTION NEWS Mauritius and others under scrutiny for money-laundering 20 Aug 2020, 17:05 Mauritius, that lazy, friendly little island in the Indian Ocean, beloved of holidaymakers and honeymooners, has a dark side. It is also a favourite haunt of money launderers and tax evaders and in fact, is known as one of the world’s top corporate tax havens. In July 2019, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) Read more >