There is something seriously broken in a governance system that produces this result, as reported by the CBC:
The City of Montreal has confirmed that former mayor Michael Applebaum has received more than $267,000 in severance pay.
Applebaum resigned from office after being arrested in June on 14 charges including fraud and conspiracy.
City spokesman Gonzalo Nunez said the law governing severance payouts does not take into account the reason for the end of time in office, except in the case of death.
Mr. Applebaum and Mr. Tremblay should both disgorge their severance pay of course, and while they are at it, why not all the pay they have ever received from the taxpayers of Quebec, in restitution for abuse of office. But that's not what the law requires. More evidence that we are experiencing a serious governance crisis in Quebec.
I wish I could express surprise. I can, however, muster some dismay:
The Senate has severely scaled back the Stock Act, the law to stop members of Congress and their staff from trading on insider information, in an under-the-radar vote that has been sharply criticised by advocates of political transparency.
The changes, if they become law, will exclude Congressional and White House staff members from having to post details of their shareholdings online. They will also make online filing optional for the president, vice-president, members of Congress and congressional candidates.
The House was expected to pass a similar bill on Friday.
Clearly, what we least need right now from our elected leaders is an assurance that we will know less and less about their business and financial dealings while they ostensibly serve in the public interest. For shame.
Cahuzac's denials and ultimate admission about hiding money offshore while serving as the anti-evasion officer-in-chief is very embarrassing for France, and so it should be no surprise to see the rhetoric heat up as new allegations surface about his attempts to move the money around in an ultimately futile attempt at subterfuge. From AFP:
J'ai dit quoi?
France said Sunday [ed: France is a country and cannot speak. It is not so difficult to write "French leaders said", and it is ever so much less distracting.] it was looking to tighten Europe-wide measures against tax evasion as it scrambles to contain a fraud scandal that has rocked President Francois Hollande's government.
...Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici announced that France would seek to reinforce the exchange of banking information throughout Europe, based on a US ruling in place since 2010 that seeks to fight offshore tax evasion.
Well, the "rule" may have been in place but let us recall that it is not in fact yet in force...three years later, we're still working out the kinks over here, and there are many, many kinks.
More:
"I propose that there be an automatic exchange of information, a European FATCA," Moscovici said on Europe 1 radio.
Hollande's government has been shaken by the scandal, which erupted Tuesday after Cahuzac -- once in charge of tackling tax evasion -- admitted to investigators that he had a foreign account containing some 600,000 euros ($770,000).
...Critics have been quick to round on Hollande and his ministers, accusing them of either trying to cover up the scandal or of mismanagement for having believed Cahuzac's denials.
...Hollande has tried to contain the fall-out from the scandal, saying he was unaware of the account and announcing Wednesday that a new law would be submitted within weeks that will establish greater control over ministers' wealth.
The law would also ban any elected representative found guilty of tax fraud or corruption from holding any form of public office.
Query whether there would be enough people left to run the world if every country made this same pledge.
This exposes a number of rotten practices, few of which I would guess are unique to Malaysia. Instead, what I think we are seeing here is a manual: How to steal your state's resources for personal gain, in 8 easy steps.
Step 1: get control over state land allocation and resource extraction licensing by becoming a state authority. Step 2: open a series of accounts in trust or corporate form, in places will hide your identity and assets from other state authorities, for example, in "the new Switzerland." Step 3: have the state sell land at nominal prices to your family members and/or companies you control. Step 4: when buyers inquire at your state offices about making land leases or purchases, direct them to your family members. Step 5: have your family members and lawyers explain to the buyer that the purchase will require two purchase contracts plus a side arrangement for licensing rights. Step 6: write the first purchase contract for a nominal price to legally transfer the property locally but generate minimal (or no) profit. Step 7: write the second purchase contract to direct the remaining purchase price to be paid directly to one of the offshore accounts. Step 8: have the buyer write the side arrangement fee directly to one of the offshore accounts.
Query: how do you make sure your buyer actually pays you the second purchase price? That is, if the first contract documents the sale, what stops the buyer exercising ownership rights if he double crosses you on the offshore bank contract? The woman in the video says no problem, this has "been done." How has it been done? Are we talking about hiring thugs to break kneecaps? I've heard of similar triangular contractual arrangements in other equally criminal schemes, and I always wonder about how that aspect works out. Honor among thieves?
what is the message here from AIG? “I needed money so I stole your car, robbed a liquor store, and now I am giving you your car back and I left a portion of the liquor store loot…”
And I'm proud of that. Thank you, America!
The PR dept didn't completely fail though: they were smart enough to disable the comments section:
Sungmun Choi asks, “Do Interest Groups Reward Politicians for their Votes in the Legislature?” And answers: of course they do. Choi examined monetary contributions paid by interest groups to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and found evidence that the politicians who voted for the 2008 bank bailout were rewarded in the form of "more monetary contributions from the interest groups in the financial sector after passage of the EESA." Conclsion; "interest groups reward politicians for their favorable votes in the legislature, at least in the case of the EESA. Of the two hypotheses that I develop in the theoretical part of the paper, I find evidence for the hypothesis of the long-term relationship between interest groups and politicians." Paper at the link.
TJN posts this report from Global Financial Integrity, showing that
Crime, corruption, and tax evasion cost the developing world $858.8 billion in 2010
... the biggest exporters of illicit financial flows over the decade are:
China, $274 billion average ($2.74 trillion cumulative)
Mexico, $47.6 billion avg. ($476 billion cum.)
Malaysia, $28.5 billion avg. ($285 billion cum.)
Saudi Arabia, $21.0 billion avg. ($210 billion cum.)
Russia, $15.2 billion avg. ($152 billion cum.)
Table 2 of the report's appendix has a complete list. This demonstrates why information gathering and exchange has got to be global and, contrary to how it's going right now, should probably start with the world's wealthiest countries imposing their gathering, reporting, and sharing regime on their own financial institutions vis a vis the rest of the world, rather than working to protect their own bases first and foremost. This is a time for leadership by example.
