On & nbsp; Monday & nbsp; ahead of the & nbsp; 10 & nbsp; Democracy Summit & raquo; nbs; format, US President Joe Biden announced the first ever anti-corruption strategy in the country's history. The document focuses on & nbsp; strengthening diplomatic cooperation in the & nbsp; anti-corruption area and & nbsp; offers additional measures to & nbsp; prevent the use of the American and & nbsp; international financial systems for & nbsp; money laundering and & nbsp; money laundering.
& laquo; Corruption & nbsp; & mdash; it is a cancer within & nbsp; society, a disease that erodes trust in public institutions and & nbsp; the ability of governments to help their citizens & nbsp; & mdash; noted in a & nbsp; newsletter explaining the details of the initiative. There & nbsp; same & nbsp; it is recalled that & nbsp; the Biden government, “ giving an account of & nbsp; the ability of corruption to destroy democracy, '' on June 3 for the first time announced & nbsp; plans to create a strategy to & nbsp; counteract & nbsp; from the US government.
And they called it one of the US authorities.
the main priorities in the field of protecting national interests.
As noted by NBC News, the & nbsp; document, in & nbsp; in particular, was influenced by the penetration into the media of data from the & nbsp; so-called Pandora Papers.
Recall that & nbsp; another compromising material from the & nbsp; International Consortium investigative journalism was published in & nbsp; October. Journalists analyzed about 11.9 & nbsp; million documents with & nbsp; data on & nbsp; offshore accounts of world leaders. The & nbsp; papers featured 35 current and & nbsp; former national leaders, as well as 330 officials from & nbsp; 91 countries.
Publication of these documents forced the American authorities to think about & nbsp; how to prevent money laundering and & nbsp; tax evasion by officials and & nbsp; other powerful of this world.
The result of this work was the publication of a 38-page document. The strategy consists of five points.
The first involves deeper coordination of all branches of government in the & nbsp; USA on & nbsp; the issue of combating & nbsp; corruption, including & nbsp; through & nbsp; & & nbsp; & & nbsp; & & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp; & & nbsp; analysis of intelligence about & nbsp; corrupt subjects base and & nbsp; their & nbsp; resource & nbsp; networks & nbsp; law enforcement agencies' and & nbsp; intensification of information exchange between the intelligence community and & nbsp; security forces. On the & nbsp; side of the executive branch, the US Treasury, the Ministry of Trade and the & nbsp; Agency for & nbsp; International Assistance USAID will take an active part in this process.
Second, it is planned to eliminate holes in & nbsp; American financial legislation to & nbsp; prevent money laundering and & nbsp; other illegal practices.
In particular, the emphasis is on combating money laundering through the acquisition of real estate. According to the White House, about $ 2.3 billion has been laundered in this US market over the past five years.
As noted in a & nbsp; conversation with & nbsp; “ Kommersant '' The head of the New York investment company Navigator Principal Investors Kyle Shostak, according to & nbsp; his observations, now in & nbsp; the most prestigious skyscrapers of New York and & nbsp; other American cities, citizens of China, other countries of Asia, Latin America and & nbsp; the Middle East prevail among the real owners. p>
Moreover, the most popular way of owning real estate, according to & nbsp; he said, “ became opaque companies with & nbsp; limited liability (LLC), which do not & nbsp; report on & nbsp; ultimate beneficiaries ''.
So that & nbsp; the future will not & nbsp; allow money laundering through & nbsp; such transactions, the US government promises to change legislation and & nbsp; actively work with & nbsp; Congress, the & nbsp; newsletter notes.
Thirdly, in order to enhance the effect of these measures, the US government intends to cooperate with & nbsp; its colleagues around the world in & nbsp; part of the harmonization of the legislation of other countries with & nbsp; general anti-corruption norms. This will help bring to justice those involved in & nbsp; international corruption around the world, the White House believes.
US officials also intend to focus their efforts on “protecting civil society institutions, media representatives, including investigative journalists who expose corruption.” suppression of bribery abroad. Coordination is expected with & nbsp; & nbsp; the private sector to “ improve the international business climate '' and & nbsp; to stimulate the implementation of anti-corruption business processes in & nbsp; American multinational companies.
The fourth item in the & nbsp; strategy is “ safeguarding and & nbsp; strengthening the multilateral anti-corruption architecture. '' By this, the White House means steps related to & nbsp; interaction within the & nbsp; G20 and & nbsp; G7, and & nbsp; also the entry of the United States into & nbsp; new and & nbsp; existing initiatives, for example, the & nbsp; Open Government partnership, aimed at increasing the transparency of the work of the authorities & nbsp; all over the world.
Finally, point five is the improvement of bilateral diplomatic interaction and the use of partners' resources to achieve the goals of anti-corruption policy.
Here, the American authorities are planning to improve interaction at the & nbsp; government level, and & nbsp; also provide assistance to other countries in the implementation of anti-corruption measures.
Commenting in a & nbsp; conversation with & nbsp; “ Kommersant '' the efforts of the American government to & nbsp; fight against & nbsp; corruption, Mr. Shostak noted: although the administration insists that & nbsp; this is the first anti-corruption strategy, nevertheless, measures in & nbsp; this area have been taken a long time ago and & nbsp; have already become part of the trend both in the & nbsp; USA and & nbsp; on & nbsp; ; world stage.
With & nbsp; this, according to & nbsp; he, “ here, of course, a double-edged sword: '' On the one hand, the administration is trying to improve transparency and & nbsp; put obstacles in the & nbsp; paths of foreign & ldquo; corrupt & rdquo; of money. And & nbsp; c & nbsp; another, for example, the real estate industry, developers, an army of agents who serve it, need & nbsp; an influx of foreign buyers.
The expert said that, according to some estimates, foreigners control up to 40% of the total dollar volume the value of American real estate.
Anti-corruption strategy of the White House & nbsp; & mdash; one of the & nbsp; points for & nbsp; discussion with & nbsp; partners at & nbsp; & nbsp; Summit for & nbsp; Democracy, where 110 countries were invited. According to the list published by the State Department, among the invitees & nbsp; & mdash; all the closest partners of the United States, including Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Australia, the EU.
However, China, Russia and Hungary, for example, remained without an invitation. be used and & nbsp; to & nbsp; fight against & nbsp; opponents. In & nbsp; in particular, Mr. Shostak suggested not & nbsp; not to forget that & nbsp; & quot; the label of so-called corrupt money, if you & nbsp; desire, is conveniently glued to & nbsp; funds of almost any foreign buyer & raquo ;.
Ekaterina Moore, Washington