Like all polemics, this one is strong on passion, but even with ample examples, the assertion that Moneyland is a fatal rot does not make it so. Without concerted multigovernment efforts, the system will remain unassailable. The efforts of governments, especially Washington, to plug the loopholes and prevent, say, a multinational bank like UBS from using Swiss laws to help American investors evade taxes, are a game of whack-a-mole. In Bullough’s estimation, Moneyland is the dark twin of globalization, an unregulated system made possible by the same tissues of connectivity that have enabled global supply chains, cross-border trade and electronic cash flows. That legal blanket has, alas, enabled despots and other powerful individuals to skim assets in countries where the rule of law is thin - think Zimbabwe or Russia - and stash them beyond anyone’s reach. Though they were scolded by the judge, who snapped, “We don’t convict people because they have a lot of money and throw it around,” they did win the case Manafort was ultimately sentenced to seven years in jail.įor many, the case was a leading indicator of the corruption surrounding Donald Trump, but for the British journalist Oliver Bullough, it is simply one more glimpse into a world he calls “Moneyland,” a shadow system of trillions of dollars of hidden assets that transcends nations, feeds corruption and “quietly but effectively” is “impoverishing millions, undermining democracy, helping dictators as they loot their countries.” After years of exhaustive investigative research for the book he also calls “Moneyland,” Bullough offers not just a bill of particulars spanning continents but a polemic about the dangers of a global cancer that must be exposed and combated.Ī large swath of Moneyland is completely legal, especially given that multiple jurisdictions have designed laws intended to create a comfortable home for capital that wants anonymity. By enumerating these purchases, the prosecutors hoped to present a picture of unbridled greed to support their portrait of corruption and tax evasion. #HIDDEN ISLANDS RENO NV TRIAL#MONEYLAND The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World By Oliver Bulloughĭuring the federal trial of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, prosecutors extensively detailed his lavish spending on clothing, listing multiple purchases that included an $18,000 suede coat, pairs of trousers at $2,800 each and total spending of nearly $1 million at one Manhattan store over a multiyear period.
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