Financial Transparency Coalition

Corruption is a criminal behavior. To contain the harm done to society by the corrupt, we rely on oversight and prosecution. We expect integrity from our leaders, and while the ability to stamp out corruption through prosecution is imperfect, it is demonstrable that few are immune from scrutiny. The headline grabbing investigations of figures like Tom DeLay, Charles Rangel, and Steven Ratner are only the most recent examples. Our response to corruption abroad follows the same reasoning. To foreign leaders we counsel: remove the corrupt from positions of power and prosecute them for their crimes. Yet for every story of...

If you’ve been following the melodrama surrounding the Bank of Kabul unfold, you’ll already know that the situation has (somewhat) stabilized. If you haven’t, here’s what you missed. Last week panic struck when President Karzai approved the dismissal of the Bank’s CEO, Sherkhan Farnood, amid numerous allegations of large scale corruption. According to high-level reports, top executives of the bank had been lending millions of dollars to the political elite for purchases of high-end real estate in Dubai. In the face of United Arab Emirates’ alarming real estate bubble, these investments are looking frighteningly sour. If...

The New York Times reports today that Hamid Karzai, the current president of Afghanistan, admitted to helping his aide escape corruption charges. From the Times:

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan acknowledged Sunday for the first time that he had personally intervened to free a top political aide who had been detained on graft charges by two American-backed Afghan anticorruption units. The aide, Mohammed Zia Saleh, head of administration for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, was arrested in late July after investigators wiretapped Mr. Saleh apparently soliciting bribes from...

The Washington Post--Alarmed by an exodus of money from Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan authorities are trying to constrict a flow of cash through the country's main airport, believed to be a major conduit for drug proceeds and diverted foreign aid.