By
Tom Odhiambo
Title – Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World; Author: Tom Burgis; Publisher: Harper 2020; Pages: 464.
The Greek gave the world many words that today seem to acquire very poignant meaning. Kleptocracy is not a word that one hears in everyday conversation. It doesn’t easily appear in pages of essays analyzing politics in what are deemed democratic or even democratizing societies.
But in the recent past it has crept into special reports about countries whose leaders seem unwilling to step down from office, but who have also become quite rich – partly, if not mainly, because of being in that office.
The standard dictionary meaning of Kleptopia is that of a country whose leaders rob the citizen and use the stolen wealth to stay in power, becoming more powerful the more money they have and the longer they stay in office.
How is Kleptopia related to wealth, taxes, and general progress of a society? Why should we bother about the existence of a Kleptocracy anywhere in the world?
If you read Tom Burgis’ new book, Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World (2020) you will understand why we should all be scared that money from openly undemocratic regimes could be funding institutions (including philanthropies), buying up companies and real estate, paying bills for politicians, among such other activities locally.
It could be money from some Euro-Asian country whose name is difficult to pronounce, or a neighboring African country, or some South American Kleptocracy, which arrives in your country as a donation, or an investment by an unnamed foreign investor (read Moneyland) or even holiday spending.
Yet, such money would have left a trail of suffering, political repression, lost jobs and destroyed livelihoods from wherever it came.
The major point that Kleptopia raises is the possibility of the greedy and powerful rulers actually assuming that public wealth belongs to them, to use and abuse as they wish. But what is even more disturbing is the possibility that the rulers may decree that even private wealth shall only remain so as long as the rulers can and do have a share of it.
This is a scary reality. But it is the reality that Burgis discusses, in what is largely a dramatic text, with acts and scenes, set in as varied places as London, Moscow, New York, Harare, Johannesburg, Kinshasa etc.
Burgis shows that indeed the ill-gotten wealth can and does travel all over the wealth, making merry, purchasing property, educating the children of the kleptocrats, but also paying for intimidation, violence and killing of those opposed to the rulers.
In Kleptopia Burgis examines documents; revisits records; interviews countless individuals; tracks the travel of money and wealth; traces opponents of kleptocrats; meets dedicated civil servants who are ready to sacrifice their careers if not lives to ensure that the state is collects what it is owed; focuses on some of the shady characters who make the wheel of money laundering and tax evasion turn; among many other activities, to eventually produce a scary, often sad, but absolutely dramatic rendition of how the world can easily be bled to death by money and power hungry rulers and ruling elite.
But the tragedy that is dramatized in Kleptopia isn’t really about the bad guys in those God-forsaken 3rd world countries. This story isn’t even about African dictators mopping up all the money they could lay their hands on, selling any little natural resources available and buying expensive property in Europe, Asia or America.
The usual African kleptocrats are in the drama of the story. What is scary about this book is that the kleptocrats, from wherever in the world, can engage in their mischief knowing very well that they can stash their loot in the very western countries that preach to them daily about democracy and how to fight corruption.
Where best to buy a company for concealing stolen money than in London. Burgis shows that London (or any other western city for that matter) has enough lawyers, PR companies, banks, wheeler-dealers, financial investors, lobbyists, old politicians, musclemen or even pressmen to help one have his money stay safe, wherever in the world.
London, despite claims to being a beacon of democracy and integrity, has no qualms receiving, keeping, investing and growing stolen money from other parts of the world, Burgis shows. Its ruling class can easily offer services as board members of any organization – even one run by nefarious characters – for a little monetary inducement.
For Burgis, it is the comfort that money – legal but seeking-to-be-hidden money, illicitly acquired money, money from crime networks – can and does find a home in the western world’s major financial cities. That should worry many who seek a just and progressive society.
To those who wish to have the rich show how they make their money and also pay taxes, Burgis suggests that it will take more than hope, investigation, policy and prayer to get them to pay up and open up about their wealth.
Why? Because very few rich people, especially those in power, would allow scrutiny of the sources of their wealth and questions about their tax obligations. The never-ending story of Donald Trump and tax declaration gives a hint to what happens elsewhere in the world. Trump is actually a character in the text.
In Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World Burgis shows how public resources can be sold cheaply to individuals who on the side would agree to share directly or indirectly with government officials or politicians the spoils of the theft.
Drawing examples from one of the former USSR states, traversing Europe, travelling to Asia and Africa, landing in America, Burgis reveals that such ‘stolen’ resources – sometimes really sold to the lowest but connected bidder, thus robbing the selling country of much needed revenue and subsequent taxes – can end up belonging to anyone anywhere.
For instance, a diamond mine in the DRC can end up being traded by officials in the country and those from a neighboring country to a group of ‘foreign investors’ in Europe who may then use it to raise the stock of their company on one of the European stock exchanges.
The African deal may put a lot of money in some African bureaucrat and politician but hardly any revenue into the public purse. Meanwhile, the locals may be killed should they ask questions about such transactions or their environment may be degraded without any chance of compensation.
Many such deals, spread throughout the world and enabled by what we may call ‘travelling capital’, originating from offshore bank accounts and whose profits are kept in tax havens, happen because of the availability of the chain of willing lawyers, PR companies, banks, states that offer tax holidays and tax havens, inactive or complicit government oversight agencies, investment bankers, among other individuals and institutions.
These individuals and institutions are neither convinced by the moral imperative to ask questions about the sources of such money nor worried about bending the law, where and when needed, to make a profit for their clients or enable their money to cross borders and transit from one bank to another.
Burgis is well aware of the consequences of the asking questions; researching kleptopia; writing about the seemingly ‘upright’ public figures who midwife theft of public resources and laundering of such money, and their more sinister accomplices who won’t shy away from breaking legs, kidnapping or killing on orders from the kleptocrats.
He warns that even apparently independent newspapers and media, under threat of litigation, may not publish findings from such investigations.
So, how do we begin to deal with the dangers of kleptopia? It is a difficult question. But Burgis suggests that all who are worried about how the rich and their networks are fleecing society need to take a moral stand. Or even a pragmatic position.
Yes, it is risky to speak about this subject. But speak we must. We must ask questions. We should hold public institutions accountable. We have to make our own little contribution, even when risky, to the fight against kleptopia.
The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi. He can be contacted at: Tom.odhiambo@uonbi.ac.ke; 0720009155
