All posts tagged: Corruption

Feds sue to seize New York apartments in alleged Mongolia scheme

Feds sue to seize New York apartments in alleged Mongolia scheme

Batbold Sukhbaatar of Mongolia addresses the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 22, 2010. Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images Federal prosecutors on Tuesday sued to seize two New York City apartments worth $14 million that were allegedly bought with proceeds from a corrupt scheme involving Mongolia’s huge copper mine, a former prime minister of that nation, and his Harvard Business School graduate son. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn details a total of $128 million in allegedly unlawful contracts granted by a Mongolian state-owned mining company to shell companies, which benefited then Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold and his family, including his oldest son. “During Batbold’s tenure as Prime Minister, Erdenet Mining Corporation inserted a middleman with ties to Batbold into the relationship with [the commodity trading firm] Ocean Partners, allowing Batbold to siphon off millions of dollars for his personal use and benefit, which included the purchase of the” luxury apartments in Manhattan, the suit alleges. Batbold served as prime minister from 2009 …

Bulgaria’s government talks blow up as Mariya Gabriel withdraws bid to be PM – POLITICO

Bulgaria’s government talks blow up as Mariya Gabriel withdraws bid to be PM – POLITICO

“Thus, in practice, the development of the constitutional procedure cannot end successfully,” Gabriel added.  Nikolai Denkov, who represents We Continue the Change, led Bulgaria’s government for the first nine months of the planned rotation, with Gabriel as his deputy and foreign minister. He resigned earlier this month, theoretically paving the way for Gabriel to become prime minister for the next nine months. Now it’s all fallen apart — and, as the second-largest party in parliament, Denkov’s We Continue the Change is next in line to have the chance to form a government. Gabriel, who previously ran the EU’s digital and innovation portfolios across two terms as a European commissioner, left the EU post last year after being picked as prime minister nominee by the former leader and GERB boss Boyko Borissov. Source link

Senegal’s women voters could make a miracle happen in presidential election | Elections News

Senegal’s women voters could make a miracle happen in presidential election | Elections News

Popenguine-Ndayane is home to me. This small fishing village on the Atlantic coast some 100km (62 miles) from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, is a site of pilgrimage for the country’s Christian minority. For the past 135 years, pilgrims – including the pope – have travelled here to pray at a site where they say the Black Madonna appeared. Some believe miracles happen in this village. It is a place where the sick come to be cured. Politicians also come here to get elected. Their campaigns arrive with blaring mbalax music – the popular dance tunes of Senegal – free T-shirts, and sometimes handfuls of cash and a promise that if you “vote for us, your despair will turn to hope”. “Politicians think they can make miracles,” one of my neighbours tells me with a hint of irony. Senegalese voters are not duped though. Voters gather in Popenguine-Ndayane in the days leading up to Senegal’s election [Nicolas Haque/Al Jazeera] Macky Sall’s announcement Voting is a tradition that precedes French colonial rule in Senegal: From the poet-President Leopold Sedar …

Coalition stalwart edges pro-EU opponent in first round – POLITICO

Coalition stalwart edges pro-EU opponent in first round – POLITICO

Pellegrini previously served as Slovak prime minister in 2018 after Fico was forced from office amid a scandal over the murders that year of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. “Let’s enjoy this experience,” Pellegrini said as the polls closed on Saturday. The speaker, who only agreed to a single debate with Korčok before the first round, promised to hold “several duels, as it should be” with his opponent before the second round, and “not to succumb” to an aggressive campaign style. Korčok was foreign minister under the chaotic 2020-2023 government of political maverick Igor Matovič. Before that, he served as Slovakia’s permanent representative to the EU; head of delegation for the country’s 2003 accession talks to NATO; and ambassador to Germany and the U.S. “I should say honestly that I need to reach out more to voters who supported the government parties,” Korčok said from his Bratislava election headquarters as the early count was released. “It’s clear that they’re not satisfied with how this government is ruling, where it’s taking Slovakia.” …

Peruvian democracy weakened as government consolidates control: Report | Politics News

Peruvian democracy weakened as government consolidates control: Report | Politics News

Peruvian democracy has continued to deteriorate more than a year after the removal of former President Pedro Castillo, according to a recent report from the Washington-based nonprofit Freedom House. The report — released this month — traced the lingering effects of a government crackdown on protesters, as well as efforts to interfere with judicial independence and other oversight bodies. The result was that Peru slumped from a rating of “free” in 2022 to “partly free” in 2023 and 2024, as Freedom House noted declining democratic protections for the freedom of assembly and eroding safeguards against corruption. “All these regulatory bodies and independent branches of government used to have the possibility of opposing decisions by Congress, and now that possibility is really attenuated,” said Will Freeman, the author of the report and a fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He added that Peru saw the fourth-largest drop in its Freedom House score of any country in the world. “It’s all producing a situation where it’s very possible that, by the next …

“He’ll never leave”: Why Trump’s dynasty, built on corruption and violence, won’t end with him

“He’ll never leave”: Why Trump’s dynasty, built on corruption and violence, won’t end with him

No, you’re not being hyperbolic if you say MAGA is a fascist movement. You’re just being accurate. That was one of the biggest points made by NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” during our recent “Salon Talks” conversation. Ben-Ghiat explained that Donald Trump is leading a “right-wing counterrevolution against the loss of white male privilege,” aimed at taking America back to the time when women, nonwhite people and non-Christians “knew their place.”  But what truly defines MAGA as fascist, Ben-Ghiat said — rather than just right-wing — is its use of violence. “Fascists believe that violence is the way to change history,” she told me. We saw that clearly enough on Jan. 6, 2021, with the attack on the Capitol mean to keep Trump in power despite his loss in the 2020 election. What is most worrisome going forward, Ben-Ghiat suggested, is Trump’s defense of the Jan. 6 attackers as “hostages” and his promises to pardon them, which seek to change “the perception of violence.” Trump’s message to his loyal …

Accused of Rights Abuses, Corruption, Ugandan Parliament Speaker Misleads on US Travel Ban

Accused of Rights Abuses, Corruption, Ugandan Parliament Speaker Misleads on US Travel Ban

In an online protest campaign run under the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition, Ugandans accused Anita Among, speaker of Uganda’s National Assembly, of embezzling millions in public funds. Protest organizers shared documents leaked to journalists and human rights activists by members of parliament. The leak incudes official documents from the internal financial intelligence agency and expose the rot in parliament and other government institutions in Uganda, the activists say. One of the campaign organizers, Jimmy Ssentongo, said in a post on X that Among used private bank accounts to divert enormous amounts of government funds between April 2023 and January 2024. On March 15, lawmakers at the Ugandan parliament put other house businesses aside to discuss the online protest. Representative Theodore Ssekikubo told Among: “… this house has been engulfed in unprecedented abuse, honorable speaker. You say we debate other things on papers when the credibility of this house is under challenge. “We are having a major problem,” Ssekikubo added. “We cannot sit here as if nothing wrong has happened.” Among dismissed allegations as rumors and used derogatory …

Main Modi opponent Kejriwal challenges arrest ahead of India election

Main Modi opponent Kejriwal challenges arrest ahead of India election

A top Indian opposition politician appeared in court Friday to fight his arrest in a case supporters say is aimed at sidelining challengers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before next month’s election. Issued on: 22/03/2024 – 09:41 3 min Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance formed to compete against Modi in the polls, was detained on Thursday in connection with a long-running corruption probe. He is among several leaders of the bloc under criminal investigation and one of his colleagues described his arrest as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Read moreIndia punishes critics by revoking visas and residency permits Kejriwal was escorted into a courtroom in the capital by officers from the Enforcement Directorate, India’s main financial crimes agency, to petition for bail while the case proceeds. His legal team had originally sought to challenge the legality of his detention in the Supreme Court but Shadan Farasat, a lawyer for Kejriwal, told AFP they would instead contest his remand …

Slovakia, the EU’s next rule of law headache – POLITICO

Slovakia, the EU’s next rule of law headache – POLITICO

“Now that Robert Fico is back in power, he is out for revenge. He’s hunting for journalists,” said Košice-based activist Ján Gálik, who is one of the founders of the For A Decent Slovakia initiative, a civil society group which organized the protests after Kuciák’s murder. “They are again creating an atmosphere where more journalists can, and I hope not, but it’s possible, can get murdered again. He’s fully responsible for this atmosphere.” Rule of law test in presidential elections The upcoming presidential election will be the next test for the rule of law. Slovaks head to the polls this Saturday to elect the country’s new president, with a likely runoff between the top two candidates to be held on April 6. Although the role of president in Slovakia is largely ceremonial, outgoing President Zuzana Čaputová, who isn’t seeking re-election, has been an important buffer against some of the controversial decisions taken by Fico’s government. That buffer may soon no longer exist as the Slovak parliament’s speaker — and Fico’s right-hand-man — Peter Pellegrini is …