US Attorney General Announces Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative

August 2, 2010

US Attorney General Eric Holder has declared war on governments riddled with stealing and corruption, or kleptocracies, the world over. The new enforcement program, called the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, targets public corruption in foreign states, explained Holder during a speech he recently delivered to African leaders convening in Uganda.

Holder spoke of the global impact of foreign bribery, noting that according to a 2004 World Bank report, approximately $1 trillion+ in bribes are paid each year out of a $30 trillion world economy. He highlighted the importance of neither condoning nor ignoring the practice.

Although details of how the program is to work remain unclear, the focus of the asset recovery initiative will be on large-scale corruption schemes orchestrated by foreign government officials. The initiative will aim to recover the money stolen by corrupt officials that otherwise would have served the people.

The Attorney General assured his audience that combating this sort of corruption was a “top priority” for him both in the U.S. and abroad.

“As many here have learned – often in painful and devastating ways – corruption imperils development, stability, competition and economic investment. It also undermines the promise of democracy.”

The initiative seems to be a complement to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which bans bribery of foreign officials to obtain or maintain business. Since the law went into effect, the U.S. has pursued three times as many foreign bribery cases as other countries have done. The U.S. Justice Department has, over the past six years, prosecuted 80 individuals and 37 corporations for corruption, amassing over $1.5 billion in fines.

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