The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations latest report (Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case Histories) details the lives of rich African despots who have funneled huge sums into the country, all with the help of morally-flexible Americans.

 

There’s Omar Bongo, president of Gabon, who was aided by lobbyist Jeffrey Birrell in his purchase of American-built armored vehicles and military cargo aircraft, and who stashed more than $100 million into offshore shell companies. Bongo also transported $1 million into the U.S., right past customs, by using his diplomatic status and gave it to his daughter for her to deposit into an American bank.

 

Another American, Jennifer Douglas, helped her husband, Atiku Abubakar, former vice president of Nigeria, smuggle “$40 million in suspect funds into the United States,

through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to U.S. bank accounts,” according to the committee report. The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Douglas of taking $2 million in bribes from Siemens AG, a major German corporation. Douglas eventually pled guilty to criminal charges and settled a lawsuit stemming from the bribery charges.

 

The tales of corruption go beyond involvement of individual Americans and even implicate upstanding institutions of higher learning. American University in Washington, DC, reportedly accepted $14 million over a five-year period from Abubakar through two offshore corporations for consulting that helped develop a Nigerian university. University officials never asked about the source of the funds, telling committee investigators it wasn’t required under the law.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case Histories (U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations) (pdf)

Senate Report Finds U.S. Banks Support Corrupt Regimes Through Offshore Accounts (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)