The Bunker

Daily: Clean Hands, Dirty Money – Transparency International’s Frank Vogl on Corruption

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Episode notes

Laundering the dirty cash of kleptocrats is labour-intensive work. So who are the Western bankers, lawyers, accountants, and realtors enabling corruption across the world? Frank Vogl, co-founder of Transparency International, talks to Alex Andreou about his latest book, The Enablers, cleaning up the City of London, how cash launderers still lurk in the least corrupt countries …and why stunning artworks often conceal the ugliest of transactions.

• “We never have petty corruption without widescale corruption in place.”
• “The art market is the most opaque of all markets.”
• “Enablers aid and abet the kleptocrats to make their investments.”
• “The amount of money that Denmark has laundered through Estonia is larger than Estonia's entire economy.”
• “Even in countries that are perceived not to be corrupt, the enablers are at work.”

Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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