Show cover of Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Bribe, Swindle or Steal

Alexandra Wrage, president of TRACE, interviews luminaries in the field of financial crime, including bribery, fraud, money-laundering, insider trading and sanctions. Each week, Alexandra and her guests will discuss who commits “white collar crime”, how it works and what is being done to stop it.

Tracks

Retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell joins the podcast to describe the review he was commissioned to undertake of Hockey Canada’s organizational structure in the aftermath of a sexual assault scandal that shook confidence in the sport in 2018.

11/13/24 • 31:07

In his mid-20s, Chuck Collins made a fateful choice. The great-grandson of Oscar Meyer, and thus an heir to part of the meatpacker’s family fortune, Chuck was skeptical of the riches (some $500,000 in 1986 dollars). He didn’t want to perpetuate the imbalances he saw dynastic wealth creating in society. Rather than live off the interest, or to give a portion to charity, Chuck gave away the entire inheritance, and thus embarked on a most unusual sort of normal life. In this episode, Chuck explains what reverberations his decision to give away his inheritance had on his family and in his career, and he lays out his case to other similarly privileged Americans: Why life is better without the insulation that great wealth provides, and how billionaires can rejoin American life. Chuck Collins is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he edits Inequality.org. He is also a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth Americans who advocate for public policies — including higher taxes on the wealthy — meant to rein in the political power of the richest Americans. His prolific writings focus on inequality, the racial wealth divide, philanthropy, the climate crisis, and billionaire wealth dynasties. His forthcoming book "Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power and Ruining Our Lives and Planet" will be published in 2025.

11/6/24 • 26:48

The sudden ascent of Mohammed bin Salman from an obscure royal heir to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia — the country’s de facto ruler — has fascinated Jonathan Rugman, an author and longtime correspondent in the Middle East. Jonathan’s latest BBC documentary, “The Kingdom,” traces MBS’s life from an unruly youth to a series of Machiavellian maneuvers to cut ahead of cousins and uncles in the line of royal succession. Jonathan’s reporting illuminates a brash but secretive young autocrat whose wealth and power have few equals anywhere on the planet. After years of high-profile murder, jailings, and crackdowns, a formidable question remains: What more does MBS want? Jonathan Rugman is a Visiting Lecturer in the journalism department at City, University of London, who has reported from some 50 countries during his 30-year journalism career. He is the author of “Ataturk’s Children – Turkey and the Kurds” and “The Killing in the Consulate,” in which he investigated the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His numerous awards include a BAFTA for his coverage of the Paris terror attacks of 2015.

10/30/24 • 47:27

For more than 20 years, Paul Schervish surveyed many of the richest people in America for a long-running study on how the wealthy view the world and themselves. In this episode, another in our series on extreme wealth, Paul explains how his research and his early years spent as a priest inform his understanding of wealth and its potential to improve the world. Applying sociological and religious scholarship to the question of how what to do with money — and by extension, what to do with the rich — he invites haves and have-nots alike to consider the roles that God, human agency, and spiritual fulfillment play in our material lives. Paul Schervish is a former Jesuit priest and a professor emeritus at Boston College, where he directed the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. A prolific scholar and author, his books include “The Structural Determinants of Unemployment,” “Wealth in Western Thought: The Case for and Against Riches,” “Gospels of Wealth: How the Rich Portray their Lives,” and “The Will of God and Wealth: Discerning the Use of Riches in the Service of Ultimate Purpose.”

10/23/24 • 30:03

Sir William Browder (“Bill”), a financier turned justice advocate, is our guest for this episode of our ongoing series on extreme wealth. Bill has been the engine behind the Magnitsky Act, a law that for the past 12 years has empowered governments to seize the assets of foreign leaders who abuse human rights — a significant countermeasure against corruption and atrocity that has exasperated Vladimir Putin and oligarchs in Russia, where Bill was once a leading foreign investor. His experience working in (and subsequently abandoning) Russia allowed him to see inside that culture and economy, and have led him to conclude Putin’s military conquests as a dictator’s efforts to protect his unfathomable stolen wealth — and his own neck. Bill Browder is the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, a firm that became the top foreign investor in post-Soviet Russia. For nearly 20 years he has been the target of Russian prosecution efforts that have drawn round condemnation from the international community, as he continues to promote the rule of law and denounce the regime of Vladimir Putin. He’s the author of “Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice” and “Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath.”

10/16/24 • 35:17

The author and philanthropist Jennifer Risher continues our series on extreme wealth by telling the story of her ear-popping rise from a middle-class Microsoft employee in the early ‘90s to an unexpected multimillionaire. The stock options she accrued with her husband, David — a fellow Microsoft employee who went on to join Amazon and who is now the CEO of Lyft — gave Jennifer immediate entry to a world of privilege that, as the child of a working-class household, she’d never expected to join. Her experience showed her the peculiar nature of personal wealth: an agent of tremendous power that, she finds, does more to amplify people’s character than to alter it. Jennifer Risher is the author of “We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth,” which aims to illuminate discussions of money that are often cloaked in taboo, guilt, and secrecy. She and her husband founded the #HalfMyDAF movement, which seeks to encourage wealthy people to make greater charitable gifts in their lifetimes.

10/9/24 • 36:43

In this episode — another in our series on extreme wealth — the journalist Steve Fishman discusses his reporting on Bernie Madoff and the collapse of Madoff’s $65 billion ponzi scheme. Steve doggedly pursued the story even after the financier was sent to a federal prison in North Carolina. Eventually the two men connected for a series of phone interviews that gave Steve a unique insight into the truths and lies that enabled Madoff to con investors at an industrial scale. Steve explains that greed was but one motivation for Madoff, an apex Manhattan insider who never forgot humiliations he suffered during his youth in Queens. Steve Fishman is a longtime journalist who lives in Brooklyn. He covered Bernie Madoff first as a staff writer at New York magazine and later as the host and creator of the podcast Ponzi Supernova. His latest podcast series, The Burden, investigates decades of sketchy convictions won by Louis Scarcella, a formerly celebrated NYPD detective.

10/2/24 • 38:30

This week we debut a special project within Bribe, Swindle or Steal: single-topic episodes that focus on extreme wealth. For years Alexandra Wrage has worked on corporate compliance and anti-corruption efforts, a field that provides a front-row view into human corruptibility. In these episodes, she digs into the practical, philosophical, political, and even spiritual roots of why people risk everything—from scandal to criminal charges—for the allure of money, even when all of their material needs are more than covered. She will explore some surprising challenges of wealth alongside the ways in which greed changes people and extreme wealth changes the rules that we all live by. Her first guest in this series is Clay Cockrell, a therapist in New York City whose Walk and Talk Therapy practice specializes in treating very wealthy clients. The problems they bring to therapy give him a unique insight into the privileges, the anxieties, and the perils exclusive to the 1%.

9/25/24 • 34:21

In this episode from 2020, Randall Eliason, law professor and former Assistant U.S. Attorney provides an excellent account of the days leading up to the sentencing of political operative Roger Stone. The Department of Justice’s unprecedented interference in--and reversal of--its prosecutorial team’s recommendation led to the resignation from the case of all four prosecutors. Over 2000 former DOJ officials called on Attorney General Barr to resign in the wake of his interference in the case. This episode was originally published on 4 March 2020.

9/18/24 • 22:54

A 22-year veteran of Treasury and consultant to the Dept of Justice, John Madinger sheds light on some of the money-laundering schemes he has uncovered and why the Breaking Bad car wash scheme probably wouldn’t have worked. This episode was originally posted: December 27, 2017

9/11/24 • 35:23

Brian Klaas, Associate Professor at University College London and host of the award-winning podcast “Power Corrupts,” joins us to discuss his book “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us”. Brian describes research on who is drawn to positions of power and how power impacts us, including potentially re-wiring our brains. This episode was originally published 30 March 2022.

9/4/24 • 21:13

David Jackson, a senior reporter with Injustice Watch, discusses his work exposing corruption, which has led to both indictments and legislative reform.

8/28/24 • 15:13

Jonathan Turner, former Vice President, Ethics & Compliance, at Smith & Nephew in Memphis, discusses the admissions scandal that has rattled several top-tier U.S. universities and ties some of the lessons learned back to the work of compliance professionals. This episode was originally published 2 October 2019.

8/21/24 • 31:24

Anand Mangnale of the OCCRP joins the podcast to describe his investigation into the practices of the vast and powerful Adnani Group in India, the spyware discovered on his phone as soon as the story began to break and the subsequent efforts to silence him, including bizarre charges of financial support of terrorism.

8/14/24 • 20:39

Declan Hill discusses the pervasive and sinister nature of match-fixing and how we can prevent sport from being turned into theater. This episode was originially posted on 2 August, 2017.

8/7/24 • 22:26

Rob Koehler, WADA veteran and current Director General of Global Athlete, joins the podcast to discuss the epidemic of doping in sports, the imbalance of power between athletes and administrators and the IOC's startling decision to allow Russia to compete in the Paris Games in spite of its invasion of Ukraine. This episode was originally published 15 February 2023.

7/31/24 • 32:03

My guest today is Melissa Goldin. Melissa is a NY-based news verification reporter with the Associated Press where she analyzes and debunks fake news. 

7/24/24 • 17:22

Sally Dennis, former President of Rugby Canada and current Canadian representative on the Council of World Rugby, describes her role in the professionalization of sports governance, where challenges remain—​ and rugby's arguably unique invulnerability to match fixing!

7/17/24 • 23:27

Mahmoud Elsobky, one of the two winners of this year’s TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting, describes his team’s high risk infiltration of a human smuggling ring that preyed on—and defrauded—those desperate to leave Syria.

7/10/24 • 25:09

Diana Henriques, award-winning journalist and author, discusses the traits of fraudsters and the menace of reputation laundering.

7/3/24 • 19:53

Paul Massaro of the U.S. Helsinki Commission discusses the scope of doping in international sport, the foreign policy implications and the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA) offered in response. (This episode was originally published on 20 March 2019)

6/26/24 • 17:00

In recognition of the recent honor of Sir Bill Browder KCMG with the title Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for his significant contributions to human rights and anti-corruption, we are revisiting a 2017 interview with Bill. He describes the brazen fraud and violence of Putin’s Russia, the death of Sergei Magnitsky, and the passage of the Magnitsky Act. (This episode was originally published on 31 May 2017)

6/19/24 • 29:19

Today’s podcast is a recording of a talk given by Drew Sullivan of the OCCRP at the University of Maryland. Drew is the co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (the OCCRP), a global network of journalists working collaboratively to evaluate and mine enormous amounts of data to expose corruption. The OCCRP is also a past winner of the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting. Special thanks to the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland in the School of Public Policy and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism for letting us record the event. Originally posted 11 May 2022

6/12/24 • 28:57

Jessica Warwick in Norton Rose's Ottawa office joins the podcast to talk about the Arapakota decision and what it means for anti-bribery enforcement in Canada.   (This episode was originally published 21 June 2023)

6/5/24 • 15:15

Pedro Pizano and Jeffrey Smith, with the McCain Institute and Vanguard Africa respectively, discuss the reputation laundering that musicians, actors and athletes facilitate when they agree to perform for dictators and kleptocrats. They also describe how these same artists can use their platforms for good instead and show support for the citizens living under brutal regimes. Originally Posted: Sep. 15, 2020

5/29/24 • 24:30

Josh Kirschenbaum is a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy and formerly served as acting director of the Office of Special Measures at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). He joins the podcast to discuss investment funds and the gaping loophole they create through which vast sums of money can move with no accountability. This episode was originally published on April 20, 2021.

5/22/24 • 28:11

Joel Bakan joins the podcast to discuss his books, and the films based on them. He outlines the fundamental conflict inherent in companies ostensibly committed to ESG principles while simultaneously driven by a legal requirement to maximize shareholder value. Originally posted on Jul. 14, 2021

5/15/24 • 34:35

This week’s podcast features an excellent presentation by Misti Mukherjee, founder and managing member of Extensio Law.  Misti addresses the shifting field of diversity, equity and inclusion—including recent changes to the law—and emphasizes the critical importance of this work alongside the need to approach it with intentionality and discipline.

5/8/24 • 34:17

This week’s podcast is a bit off the beaten track.  We speak with Sherub Tharchen in Paro in Bhutan about his country.  We cover some of the basics, including the country’s location between two neighbors with high levels of corruption, and then discuss how the current King of Bhutan tackled corruption in a way that, while probably not replicable in most countries, has nevertheless had great success for the Bhutanese.

5/1/24 • 15:18

Leah Ambler, then Director of Corruption Prevention at the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and previously Legal Analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), delves—in her personal capacity—into her excellent chapter on whistleblower protections, emphasizes their importance in reducing corruption and highlights the challenges posed by the lack of comprehensive, harmonized legislation.  Originally posted on Jan. 12, 2022

4/24/24 • 26:19

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