(Press-News.org)
Powerful legal and financial service industries are enabling kleptocracy and corrupt elites to operate with relative impunity, a new study shows.
The research details how “enablers” from these industries exploit deregulation and the under-enforcement of the law to game the system. They can offshore their clients' wealth, and enhance their reputations and influence via philanthropy, political donations, and the use of the UK's punitive libel regime.
Most of this “enabling” is likely to be non-criminal, given the very few convictions despite the widely acknowledged extent of kleptocracy. These services —or professional indulgences— also include the explaining of kleptocratic sources of wealth and concealing of ownership.
Indulging kleptocracy: British Service Providers, Postcommunist Elites, and the Enabling of Corruption, by John Heathershaw, Tena Prelec, and Tom Mayne, outlines how kleptocracy is creating moral and economic problems. It impoverishes the global south and undermines institutions in the global north, eroding faith in democracy by empowering corrupt elite business-political networks in global politics.
Professor Heathershaw said: “Kleptocracy requires help – enabling - from legal and financial professionals. This can be licit and illicit, willingly complicit, negligence or deliberate corruption. It is important to shed light on dangerous patterns of corruption, break the system of indulgences and stymie the globalization of kleptocracy.”
The book outlines the important relationship between illicit (all that which is criminal, unethical, and noncompliant) and the licit (all that which is lawful, ethical, and compliant according to professional standards) because those in services “cross the frontier” at the wishes of their clients. It is at this boundary of il/ licit that the bulk of work is done. The book explains the impact of the emergence of these blurred boundaries and network ties.
Professor Heathershaw said: “The UK has become an entrepôt for the corrupt and a market for short-term capital.”
The book contains nine case studies of corruption and kleptocracy, and each of these contains a variety of professional service providers. It outlines the historical and contemporary political context of the UK’s kleptocracy problem in which demand for its enabling services has emerged.
The researchers have previously published a database which contains 99 cases of property purchases worth more than £2 billion and made over the period from 1998 to 2020 on behalf of the elites of Russian and Eurasian states. All have completed residential real estate transactions in the UK, many using complex offshore structures to conceal either uncertain beneficial ownership or dubious sources of wealth.
The book shows there are three mechanisms of transnational kleptocracy—incumbency, alliance, and
enabling. While incumbency and alliance both matter for certain indulgences such as explaining away suspicious wealth and avoiding the threat of individual sanctions, these are less powerful than the enabler effect.
END
Powerful legal and financial services enable kleptocracy, research shows
2025-01-31
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Carbon capture from constructed wetlands declines as they age
2025-01-31
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Constructed wetlands do a good job in their early years of capturing carbon in the environment that contributes to climate change – but that ability does diminish with time as the wetlands mature, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined soil core samples taken from two constructed freshwater wetlands and compared them to data from previous studies of the same wetlands over 29 years to determine how well human-made wetlands sequester — or capture and store — ...
UCLA-led study establishes link between early side effects from prostate cancer radiation and long-term side effects
2025-01-31
Men undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer who experience side effects early in treatment may face a higher risk of developing more serious long-term urinary and bowel health issues, according to a new study led by investigators from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The study found that patients who experienced moderate acute urinary side effects in the first three months after radiation were nearly twice as likely to develop late urinary complications years later compared to those without early symptoms. Similarly, patients with early bowel side effects had nearly double the risk of chronic bowel issues.
The findings, ...
Life cycles of some insects adapt well to a changing climate. Others, not so much.
2025-01-31
As insect populations decrease worldwide in what some have called an "insect apocalypse," biologists are desperate to determine how the six-legged creatures are responding to a warming world and to predict the long-term winners and losers.
A new study of Colorado grasshoppers shows that, while the answers are complicated, biologists have much of the knowledge they need to make these predictions and prepare for the consequences.
The findings, published Jan. 30 in the journal PLOS Biology, come thanks to the serendipitous ...
With generative AI, MIT chemists quickly calculate 3D genomic structures
2025-01-31
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Every cell in your body contains the same genetic sequence, yet each cell expresses only a subset of those genes. These cell-specific gene expression patterns, which ensure that a brain cell is different from a skin cell, are partly determined by the three-dimensional structure of the genetic material, which controls the accessibility of each gene.
MIT chemists have now come up with a new way to determine those 3D genome structures, using generative artificial intelligence. Their technique can predict thousands of structures in just minutes, making it much speedier than existing experimental methods for analyzing the structures.
Using this technique, researchers could more ...
The gut-brain connection in Alzheimer’s unveiled with X-rays
2025-01-31
Scientists led by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Italy, in collaboration with the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France, have discovered how X-ray micro- and nano- tomography can provide clues on the processes that link the gut neurons with those in the brain and may trigger Alzheimer’s. The results are published in Science Advances.
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by brain alteration including synaptic loss, chronic inflammation and neuronal cell death.
In recent years, scientists have found evidence that the gut and the brain communicate through the neurons placed in ...
NIH-funded clinical trial will evaluate new dengue therapeutic
2025-01-31
A clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is testing an experimental treatment designed to help people suffering the effects of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease. The study is supported by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and will involve exposing adult volunteers to a weakened strain of dengue virus that causes a mild form of the disease and administering an investigational therapeutic at various doses to assess its safety and ability to lessen symptoms.
Dengue ...
Sound is a primary issue in the lives of skateboarders, study shows
2025-01-31
Sound plays a significant and often poignant part of skateboarders’ relationship with their sport, a new study shows.
Skateboarders develop the skill to tune into the noise of urban surfaces. They both hear and feel noise and this means images and videos alone are a poor insight into the sport. They use sound to verify the success of their manoeuvres, judge the veracity and capacity of surfaces for use and as a social cue. For some the sensory overload of skateboarding is therapeutic and it helps them connect with others skating nearby.
But ...
Watch what you eat: NFL game advertisements promote foods high in fat, sodium
2025-01-31
ST. LOUIS – Research from Saint Louis University (SLU) and the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine finds that some of the most-watched ads promote the worst food options for adults with chronic health conditions.
The findings published online on Jan. 30 in JAMA Network analyzed advertisements transmitted during televised NFL games in the U.S. to assess the nutritional content by serving.
The study found that store-bought foods and quick-service restaurants advertised during NFL games, the most watched sporting events in the U.S., ...
Red Dress Collection Concert hosted by Sharon Stone kicks off American Heart Month
2025-01-31
DALLAS, Jan. 31, 2025 — Academy Award-nominated actress and host Sharon Stone, alongside musical guests Sara Bareilles and Suki Waterhouse, headlined a roster of powerful players in music, entertainment, fashion and philanthropy to officially mark the start of American Heart Month at the Red Dress Collection® Concert on Thursday, January 30. The fashion-forward, musical celebration in New York City serves as the national marquee event for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women® movement, celebrating progress made while calling for a renewed commitment to the fight against cardiovascular disease, the number one killer ...
One of the largest studies on preterm birth finds a maternal biomarker test significantly reduces neonatal morbidities and improves neonatal outcomes
2025-01-31
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL: Jan. 31, 2025, 10:15 a.m. MST
Media Contact: Karen Addis, APR, karen@addispr.com, +1 (301) 787-2394
One of the Largest Studies on Preterm Birth Finds a Maternal Biomarker Test Significantly Reduces Neonatal Morbidities and Improves Neonatal Outcomes
Denver, Colo. ― Preterm birth ― defined as delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy — is one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the United States. Babies born prematurely are also at an increased risk of ...