The Rise of Kleptocracy: Laundering Cash, Whitewashing Reputations
To safeguard their ill-gotten gains, kleptocrats rely on a web of transnational relationships and the complicity of Western fixers.
Read the EssayTransnational kleptocracy is the process by which corrupt rulers steal from the public purse and launder their illicit gains in the international financial system. These stolen resources are parked in outside jurisdictions—often democracies—where strong rule-of-law norms protect kleptocrats’ money and whose professionals enable the theft.
But kleptocracy is about much more than illicit financial flows. Kleptocrats use stolen money to target activists, destroy human rights, and undermine democracy. The efforts of frontline civil society activists and journalists are critical for responding to kleptocracy’s foundational threat to democracy.
View More WorkTo safeguard their ill-gotten gains, kleptocrats rely on a web of transnational relationships and the complicity of Western fixers.
Read the EssayMelissa Aten is a senior program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies, where she manages the combating transnational kleptocracy portfolio.
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