Anti-Corruption • Ethics & Integrity
Frank has been engaged with global economics, banking, governance and anti-corruption for more than 40 years, as a journalist, as a World Bank senior official, as an anti-corruption civil society leader, and as a top level advisor to financial institutions. Frank is President of Vogl Communications, Inc., which has provided advice to leaders of international finance for more than two decades.
The need for honest politicians serving the public's interests is at the core of the American system of democracy. Nevertheless, in the US, as in every country, politics and corruption too often go hand-in-hand. Now a New York jury has brought in a historic set of verdicts. Will it change the New York game?
Read MorePublic trust in the biggest banks is low. I have 10 specific recommendations to cure the banks of their evil ways. Bankers will not like most of my proposals, but the time has come for radical reform.
Read MoreOn 25 September 2015, the world’s leaders assembled at the UN in New York and made a historic statement in approving the 17 “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” as the drivers of policies, programs and projects for national governments and multilateral institutions. The SDGs are to come into effect on January 1, 2016 and run to 2030.
Read MoreIn late September, world leaders meeting at the United Nations reviewed the progress being made to improve the human rights of women and girls across the globe. As The Guardian reported: "Twenty years after landmark conference in Beijing, more than 80 heads of state recommit to women’s empowerment, with progress vital to meet global goal."
Read MoreRepresentatives from more than 110 countries met in Malaysia at the Transparency International annual meeting and then joined hundreds of other activists from across the world at the 2015 International Anti-Corruption Conference at the start of September. The timing was perfect, because later this month a landmark decision will be taken in the fight against impunity and corruption at the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Read More“South Africa Ignores its Obligations to Justice,” trumpeted The Financial Times in an editorial headline on June 16, 2015.
The previous day, while South Africa’s high court was preparing a possible arrest warrant on behalf of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir departed for home in his presidential plane from a South African military airport. He had attended a meeting of the African Union – a body which has long decried the ICC and which has gone to lengths to protect African leaders who have been accused of massively murdering their citizens and, as in the case of el-Bashir, of genocide.
Read MoreThe more you dig into the details of the prosecutions that have been announced into world football (what is called soccer in the U.S.), so the more one understands the staggering scale of the conspiracies. “Let me be clear: this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie of the Eastern District of New York. Indeed, there are likely to be many more cases, not just in the U.S. and Switzerland, but in other countries as well.
Read MoreFrom the comparatively modest malfeasance in the New York State legislature (both the State assembly Speaker as well as the Senate majority leader have been indicted for corruption) to the mega-million dollar graft engulfing Brazilian businessmen and politicians today, on to the all-consuming kleptocracy in the Kremlin, the abuse of public office for private gain is rampant.
Read MoreMultiple major corruption crises are splashing across the front pages of newspapers across the globe. Taken together, these crises are contributing to global insecurity and to financial and economic instability, while they are challenging freedom and democracy in many countries.
The individual cases of grand corruption involving political leaders are reported case by case. The dangerous mega-impact, however, is only really evident by looking at the crises in combination.
Read MoreSome of the best of the recent books are attracting extraordinary attention in the United States. Sarah Chayes’s brand new Thieves of State – Why Corruption Threatens Global Security has been the topic of an hour-long national radio program, the focus of a lengthy The New Yorker article and centre stage in Washington’s think tank seminar listings.
Read More“An Albany Powerhouse on the Edge of a Volcano” ran the front page New York Times headline. Sheldon Silver, the long-serving Speaker of the New York State assembly, has been charged with a host of counts of corruption charges. Silver, who has occupied his post since 1994, is the third most powerful politician in New York (after the Governor of the state and the Mayor of New York City). He says he is innocent. Preet Bharara (photo), the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, supported by extensive evidence uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) takes a different view.
Read MoreThe First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. Today, the U.S. Government spends more than $100 million each year to promote the values of the First Amendment across the world.
Read MoreThe United States has spent $104 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the last 13 years. Approximately $62 billion of this total has been used to support the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Read MoreIt takes two to tango to rob national treasuries and undermine global commerce: the government officials and politicians who take the bribes and, of course, the corporations who pay the bribes.
Read MoreA new global survey of corruption published by Transparency International (TI) shows an all-too-familiar picture of deep and far-reaching abuse of government positions by politicians and officials for their personal gain. More than two-thirds of the 175 countries covered by the survey show very high levels of corruption.
Read More
On the eve of the Group of 20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, a group of the world’s biggest banks have agreed to pay $4.2 billion in fines to U.K., U.S. and Swiss authorities to settle charges that they fixed international currency markets over many years.
Read MoreImportant trading powers, such as Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Brazil, are failing to enforce national laws that call for criminal prosecution of companies from their countries that bribe foreign government officials and politicians.
Read MoreIt took enormous courage in 2012 for a Chinese reporter to go into print to expose one of the Chinese Communist Party's most senior officials for taking bribes and building a fortune by abusing his public office. Reporter Luo Changping did just that and, as a result, on September 24, 2014, Liu Tienan, the former deputy head of the National Reform and Development Commission, pleaded guilty in a trial in the northern province of Hebei.
Read More
Finance Ministers of the Group of 20 leading global economies agreed to take measures against tax avoidance by giant global corporations at their meeting in Australia on September 20. This now needs to be seen by the G20 as a stepping stone towards far tougher and meaningful actions against illegal tax evaders, corrupt corporations and financial institutions that launder money for corrupt officials, politicians, criminal organizations and businesses.