Displaying items by tag: kleptocracy

Revelations by courageous investigative journalists reveal kleptocracy in Equatorial Guinea. A recent cross-border investigation exposed how Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima - the President’s son, and the country’s oil minister - may have siphoned off millions in state funds and bribes abroad. Journalists tracked down an international web of shell companies and properties linked to him, including a Cyprus company and its subsidiaries in other countries. Another corruption investigation, released this week, implicates two more individuals related to the Obiangs who run Equatorial Guinea's state oil company. Journalists discovered the oil industry power couple had luxury properties around the world that even their hefty pay packages cannot explain. In Cyprus they purchased a €2.5 million villa to obtain golden EU passports. The international community needs to make it much more difficult, and eventually impossible, for the kleptocrats to enjoy the proceeds of their crimes, deterring them from stealing from their people in the first place.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna delivered the message at the mass on George Vella’s swearing-in as Malta’s tenth president. Scicluna made the point that ‘the economic prosperity of a country is on solid foundations when its leaders embrace wisdom and righteousness’. He said the reputation of Malta’s strength and growth depends on whether the values of integrity, justice and solidarity are made a political priority. ‘If the first or only thing we seek is gain or profits, democracy becomes a kerdocracy - a society based on a rush for profit - and from there on it is easy to slide into a kleptocracy, a society where power is concentrated in the hands of the greediest.’ On the same day, the Council of Europe published its report on the effectiveness of Malta’s prevention of corruption, and called for more robust action in the government and police. See https://theshiftnews.com/2019/04/03/council-of-europe-calls-for-robust-action-against-government-corruption-in-malta/