NEW: For years, U.S. lawyers have played key roles in kleptocratic networks, and yet escaped both scrutiny and regulations.

@CooleyOnEurasia and I looked at what effect this has had—and what can be done: foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/23/u-s…
One way to highlight just how useful U.S. lawyers are for kleptocrats:

Look at how many fewer anti-money laundering regulations U.S. lawyers face compared to European counterparts.

foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/23/u-s…
When it comes to anti-money laundering efforts, lobbyists for the U.S. legal sector constantly cite one solution: self-regulation.

But as one Georgetown paper last year found, there's "no evidence" U.S. lawyers have a good grasp on money laundering vulnerabilities.
We've known about how US lawyers play key roles in kleptocratic networks for *years*. A few years ago, US lawyers were caught on tape advising a fake client how to hide money in the US.

The kicker? One was the head of the American Bar Association.

foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/23/u-s…
And the services U.S. law firms offer to foreign regimes appears to be expanding, as the case of Yanukovych illustrates:

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Casey Michel 🇰🇿

Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @cjcmichel

12 Mar
NEW: One Texas GOP legislator has proposed an "1836 Project" for "patriotic education"—which is a good chance to revisit just how central cementing slavery was to the Texas Revolution. newrepublic.com/article/161685…
Quick timeline of slavery and the Texas Revolution:

1829: Mexico abolishes slavery.
1830: Anglo lobbyists secure a slavery "exemption" for Texas.
1833: Stephen F. Austin: "Texas must be a slave country."
1835: First shots of the Texas Revolution.
The Texas Revolution: Less a successor to the American Revolution, and far more a precursor to the Confederate slave empire.

newrepublic.com/article/161685…
Read 7 tweets
2 Mar
A few days after the UN's FACTI Panel launch, five big takeaways from what might well be a pivotal moment in the global fight against tax havens and illicit financial flows: financialtransparency.org/five-key-takea…
1. The report helped gather in one place just how *gargantuan* illicit financial flows and tax abuse are:

—Estimated private wealth in secrecy jurisdictions: $7 trillion
—Estimated global GDP in offshore assets: 10%
—Amount annual corporate profit-shifting costs: $650 billion
2. Context. Billions lost, trillions gone—what does that even mean? It means:

—In Gambia, financing for 6,500 wells
—In Chad, financing for 38,000 classrooms
—In South Africa, financing for HIV treatments for 6 million citizens
—In Germany, financing for 8,000 wind turbines
Read 7 tweets
1 Mar
Ulysses S. Grant “was never confused about the fact that, as he wrote in the conclusion to his memoirs, ‘slavery’ was the ‘cause’ of the Civil War.” Image
“Grant understood the meaning of grand strategy, Lee did not.” One “joined the South because he was a Virginian,” the other “threw in his lot with the North because he believed in the United States.” Image
Read 5 tweets
28 Feb
NEW: The events in Texas this month should highlight just how idiotic state-level secession is—but pro-Trump secessionist rhetoric is only going to grow and grow. nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
Think for a second what an unmitigated disaster secession would be for Texas (or any state).

It's a complete fantasy that the economics, the security, or the population(s) would somehow remain static.

nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
The recent secession chatter on the Trumpian right can't just be laughed at. It's qualitatively different than anything before—and it continues to gain new adherents.

And it has to be condemned as being little more than calls for armed, authoritarian treason.
Read 6 tweets
1 Jan
THE U.S. JUST BANNED ANONYMOUS SHELL COMPANIES nytimes.com/2021/01/01/us/…
Pardon the all-caps, but the Senate's veto override today means that the U.S. A) just eliminated the primary building block in America's transformation into an offshore haven, and B) passed the most sweeping counter-kleptocracy reforms in decades—potentially ever.
Incredible news, and an incredible way to start 2021. What a moment.
Read 16 tweets
30 Dec 20
Read a bunch of books in 2020! Here are my top-10 (non-fiction) reads:
1. "Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West," by Hampton Sides, on American imperialism and the Navajo, with some of the best, most visceral prose I've read in years.
2. "The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay," by Saez and @gabriel_zucman, an incredible distillation of growing wealth inequality in the U.S. behind cascading tax cuts, soaring tax evasion, and multinationals fleeing to tax havens.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!