Hi there,

This is our last newsletter for 2017, so this week we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest corruption stories from the past 12 months. 

Back in January, Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant implicated in the massive Lava Jato scandal, was preparing to pay billions of dollars' worth of settlements over bribes paid to secure public contracts.

Not much later, South Korean President Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after having been impeached for corruption last December. Then in Spain we saw the arrest of the former regional president of Madrid over an alleged kick-backs-for-contracts scheme. And in June, a huge leak of emails appeared to show how the Gupta family wielded influence over South Africa’s President Zuma. 

Soon after, former President Lula of Brazil was convicted of corruption and money-laundering charges.

Then the Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation exposed how the resource-rich Caucasus nation bought influence in Europe through a $2.9billion slush fund.

Anti-corruption efforts received a major boost in October when Teodorin Obiang was convicted by a French court for laundering vast sums embezzled from Equatorial Guinea, of which he is vice president (his father being the president).

In early November, the Paradise Papers shone a light on how the rich and powerful (including royalty and household-name celebrities) avoid tax through a secret offshore economy, using similar schemes to the ones criminals and the corrupt use to launder their dirty money.

Now, as the year ends, news has come in that the President of Peru has narrowly avoided impeachment for his ties to Odebrecht.

We’ve also heard this week that the U.S. Government has imposed sanctions on individuals and companies long suspected of corruption, among them the former President of Gambia, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former dictator and a mining magnate implicated in shady dealings in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

2017 might have felt like a long year, and some of these cases show that the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Transparency International is in it for the long run, and we thank you for your continued support.

Wherever you are in the world, we wish you a peaceful end to 2017 and a fair and prosperous 2018.

Corruption and inequality: how populists mislead people

With the launch of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 just five days after the inauguration of President Trump, we looked at the links between populism, socio-economic malaise and the anti-corruption agenda.

Interview with key witness in Obiang case: Delfin Mocache Massoko

Delfin Massoko's testimony helped a French court convict Teodorin Obiang. In this interview, Massoko told us aboint what the trail means to him and the people of Equatorial Guinea, and what he expects to change in the country as a result of the verdict.

Who doesn’t know the Cayman Islands is a great place to hide money? The Cayman Islands

In May, the Cayman Islands government quietly released a report that just about acknowledged the country's deficiencies at thwarting money laundering. We looked at how they could do better. 

FIFA must do more to win back trust of football fans

Transparency International and Forza Football completed a snap survey of 25,000 fans from over 50 countries to find out if FIFA was winning back the trust of football fans. They weren't.

No Magnitsky sanctions passed against Martinelli; anti-corruption investigations must continue

While welcoming the inclusion of individuals and entities suspected of corrupt practices, Transparency International and its national chapter in Panama are disappointed that Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal, Former President of Panama, has not been named in the first list of designees under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

The real cost of corruption in Brazil

Earlier this year, Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht admitted to paying bribes to politicians and public officials in order to win public procurement contracts in Brazil and abroad. The company denies that the contracts it was awarded were overpriced. For anyone who has ever read anything about the Lava Jato investigations, such a statement is difficult to believe.

Corruption in the news

Some of the biggest stories this week...

In October, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) admitted that its officials, local bankers, volunteers and others had embezzled more than $6 million in aid funds in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Swiss financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday the Swiss subsidiary of U.S. bank JPMorgan had committed serious anti-money laundering breaches in relation to Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

The 95-year-old founder of the Lotte Group and his son and group chairman were convicted on corruption charges on Friday but will avoid jail.

...this year...

VW ordered by US government to pay $4.3bn penalty, with carmaker’s former staff accused of running near decade-long conspiracy.

It is once again a case of life imitating art.

Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been arrested and taken into custody over a corruption scandal that led to her dismissal.

A growing number of Spanish politicians and business leaders are ending their careers in an unexpected place: behind bars.

With cries of "Putin out" and "Russia without thieves," mass protests took place in cities across Russia on Monday, June 12.

... and possibly next year