Dirty Debt: The Shady Deal between Russia and Angola

Corruption Watch, a London-based anti-corruption NGO, recently released a groundbreaking report exposing massive corruption in Angola. Ken Hurwitz, the senior legal officer on anticorruption with the Open Society Justice Initiative, moderates a panel discussing the report and potential remedies. Andrew Feinstein, a former South African MP who is the author of the report and the director of Corruption Watch UK; Elias Isaac, the country director for the Open Society Initiative for South Africa (OSISA); and Adriano Parreira, the former permanent representative of Angola to the United Nations in Geneva take part in the panel discussion.

The report, Deception in High Places: The Corrupt Angola-Russia Debt Deal, details one of the most egregious cases of financial crime and corruption in recent memory. Through a series of financial transactions facilitated by dubious middlemen, hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted from Russian and Angolan treasuries into the pockets of politicians, businessmen and arms dealers. This money was transferred through shell corporations via a number of banks based in secrecy jurisdictions Switzerland, Luxembourg, Cyprus, and The Netherlands.

The report highlights the role of Swiss bankers and the corporation Glencore International as key enablers of the fraudulent transactions. The week this panel discussion was recorded, a group of Angolan anti-corruption campaigners filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office based on the new information contained in the report and called for a new investigation.

For more information on the report, please visit Corruption Watch’s dedicated website.