Thread by @cjcmichel

One of the (many) things we discuss on the klepto reputation-laundering front in this week's episode: universities.

Specifically, how kleptos have turned to Western universities to whitewash their reputation, impact future scholars, and gain access to Western policy-makers.

On the topic of oligarchs, kleptocrats, and the like using American and British universities to launder their reputations, can't recommend enough this paper:

Quick thread pulling out the highlights. (1/n)

One of the key challenges in monitoring financial flows into American/British schools is actually disentangling "foreign" and "domestic" flows.

I.e., Qatar- and China-linked funding use Western shell companies or offshore entities to obscure the source of the money.

Fundraising at U.S./U.K. universities is "increasingly internationalized." For instance, it's now estimated that "more than one-third of funding to U.K. universities came from China."

But much of the data remains opaque.

(Universities are only one area of the non-profit sector that remains wide open to kleptocratic money—see this piece from me and @dszakonyi on Russian oligarchs donating hundreds of millions to American non-profits: foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/30/ame…)

"Several [American university administrators] mentioned that some universities were known to have thresholds for foreign donations that would all but guarantee admission to the donor's persons of interest."

We talk plenty about how broken FARA was for years. But look at how broken foreign donation reporting requirements are for US universities.

*Billions of dollars* in foreign donations went unreported—from places like China/Saudi Arabia, to places like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

It's not just that foreign sources of financing are opaque at elite universities. Even the *policies* are often opaque.

Out of 20 top American universities, only *one* publicly addresses donations from non-U.S. sources.

And it's not just donations from kleptocrats.

Here's Rice University's @bakerinstitute whitewashing the longest-serving dictator in the world, claiming the dictator is "building a strong foundation for the future of the country."

(Wish I'd covered this at @TheRiceThresher!)

But few donations to elite Western universities are as egregious as Cambridge University and Ukrainian oligarch Dmitro Firtash.

Firtash "appears to have used the donations to garner legal standing... to pursue legal action" against investigative journalists.

Firtash is sanctioned by Ukraine and is wanted by the US on high-level bribery charges.

Yet Cambridge still refers to Firtash as a "prominent Ukrainian businessman," whose "generous benefaction" has "opened up new possibilities to teaching and research." cam.ac.uk/research/news/…

‘In a letter released by a bipartisan group of House of Representatives lawmakers on June 22, they also suggested that Austria's judiciary had been corrupted by Dmytro Firtash’ rferl.org/a/pressure-whi…

If you're interested in more on how kleptocrats launder their reputations via American and British universities: