๐ŸŒ‰ Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Projects (by INVESTMENT THE ORIGINAL)

TOP 100 WORST INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS FEATURES CHINESE PROJECTS

1โ€“20

  1. Beijingโ€™s Ghost Airports โ€“ Built, shiny, and completely empty โœˆ๏ธ
  2. Berlin Brandenburg Airport โ€“ 15 years late, billions over budget ๐Ÿ›ซ
  3. Athens Olympic Venues โ€“ Now playgrounds for weeds and stray dogs ๐ŸŸ๏ธ
  4. Bostonโ€™s Big Dig โ€“ $15B tunnel, leaks like a sieve ๐Ÿšง
  5. Venice MOSE Flood Barriers โ€“ Still testing while the city sinks ๐ŸŒŠ
  6. Kazakhstanโ€™s Pyramid of Peace โ€“ Giant glass pyramid, purpose unclear ๐Ÿ”บ
  7. Pyongyangโ€™s Ryugyong Hotel โ€“ 105 floors of nothingness ๐Ÿจ
  8. Montrealโ€™s Olympic Stadium โ€“ Nicknamed โ€œThe Big Oweโ€ ๐Ÿ’ธ
  9. Dubaiโ€™s World Islands โ€“ Slowly sinking into the sea ๐Ÿ๏ธ
  10. Spainโ€™s Empty High-Speed Rail Lines โ€“ Fast trains to nowhere ๐Ÿš„
  11. Indiaโ€™s Statue of Unity โ€“ Giant statue, locals still without water ๐Ÿ—ฟ
  12. Brazilโ€™s Manaus Monorail โ€“ Announced, never built ๐Ÿš
  13. Los Angeles Subway Extensions โ€“ Billions for three stations ๐Ÿš‡
  14. Sochi Winter Olympic Infrastructure โ€“ Roads made of corruption ๐Ÿ”๏ธ
  15. Hamburgโ€™s Elbphilharmonie โ€“ Cost 10ร— original estimate ๐ŸŽถ
  16. Iraqโ€™s Saddam Tower โ€“ Abandoned monument to dictatorship ๐Ÿ—๏ธ
  17. Lisbon Expo โ€™98 Projects โ€“ Glamorous ruins today ๐Ÿ›๏ธ
  18. South Africaโ€™s Medupi Power Station โ€“ Built, doesnโ€™t work โšก
  19. Italyโ€™s Salerno-Reggio Calabria Highway โ€“ A never-ending road ๐Ÿš™
  20. Chinaโ€™s New Ghost Cities โ€“ Built for millions, inhabited by few ๐Ÿ™๏ธ

21โ€“40 โ€” Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Investments

(By INVESTMENT THE ORIGINAL โ€“ est. 2000 AD)

21. Venice MOSE Flood Barriers (Italy) โ€“ Billion-euro gates that rose slower than the sea.
22. London Garden Bridge (UK) โ€“ ยฃ200M for a bridge of press releases and no bridge.
23. Mexico City New Airport NAICM (Mexico) โ€“ $13B half-built mega-hubโ€ฆ canceled and left to rot.
24. HS2 High-Speed Rail (UK) โ€“ A fast train project that mainly accelerates budgets.
25. California High-Speed Rail (USA) โ€“ The bullet train stuck in legal molasses.
26. Stuttgart 21 (Germany) โ€“ Europeโ€™s longest running tunnel vision.
27. Second Avenue Subway (New York, USA) โ€“ A century of promises, three stations of reality.
28. Qatar World Cup Stadiums (Qatar) โ€“ Air-conditioned white elephants in the sand.
29. Castellรณnโ€“Costa Azahar Airport (Spain) โ€“ Ribbon cut, planes optional.
30. Uganda Standard Gauge Railway (Uganda) โ€“ Loans approved, tracks missing.
31. Kenya SGR Nairobiโ€“Mombasa (Kenya) โ€“ The โ€œDebt Expressโ€ with maintenance on layaway.
32. Kanal Istanbul (Turkey) โ€“ A parallel Bosphorus dug mostly in speeches.
33. Mattala Rajapaksa Intโ€™l Airport (Sri Lanka) โ€“ The worldโ€™s emptiest airport next to an empty port.
34. Hellenikon Redevelopment (Greece) โ€“ Europeโ€™s โ€œlargest urban projectโ€ stuck in paperwork.
35. Berlin A100 Extension (Germany) โ€“ Billions to pave new protest routes.
36. Montreal Olympic Stadium โ€“ โ€œThe Big Oweโ€ (Canada) โ€“ A roof that never worked and a debt that did.
37. LaGuardia Rebuild (USA) โ€“ From โ€œthird worldโ€ to โ€œunder constructionโ€ forever.
38. Panama Canal Expansion (Panama) โ€“ New locks, old cracks, fresh lawsuits.
39. Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear Plant (Finland) โ€“ The reactor that redefined the word โ€œdelay.โ€
40. Scottish Parliament Building (UK) โ€“ A small legislature with a grand-opera price tag.

Perfect โ€” here comes the continuation with Rank 41โ€“60 for the Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Investments (INVESTMENT THE ORIGINAL) ๐Ÿ‘‡


๐Ÿ—๏ธ Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Investments

(Ranks 41โ€“60)


41. Ciudad Real Airport (Spain) โ€“ โ‚ฌ1 billion spent on a luxury airport no one used. Shut down, reopened, shut down again. Spainโ€™s gift to aviation ghosts.

42. Hambantota Port (Sri Lanka) โ€“ A prestige project funded by Chinese loans. Barely any ships dock. Now China owns the lease for 99 years.

43. Baku Olympic Stadium (Azerbaijan) โ€“ A colossal arena for one-time European Games. Mostly empty since, except for government parades.

44. Millennium Dome (UK) โ€“ Tony Blairโ€™s โ€œpeopleโ€™s project.โ€ Opened 2000, quickly ridiculed as a white elephant. Needed reinvention as an arena.

45. Athens Olympics 2004 Venues (Greece) โ€“ Greece went bankrupt, but hey, they got a canoe slalom course thatโ€™s now home to weeds and frogs.

46. Naples Underground Subway Expansion (Italy) โ€“ Construction started in the 1970s, still incomplete today. Costs ballooning into infinity.

47. LaGuardia Airport Renovations (USA) โ€“ โ€œThird World airportโ€ makeover cost billions, plagued by delays, corruption, and chaos.

48. Ulaanbaatarโ€™s Ghost Housing (Mongolia) โ€“ Dozens of high-rise blocks built with loans, but no buyers. Freezing monuments to speculative frenzy.

49. National Grand Theater โ€œEggโ€ (China, Beijing) โ€“ Stunning but absurdly costly. Locals mocked: โ€œThe egg we cannot eat.โ€

50. Maputo-Katembe Bridge (Mozambique) โ€“ The largest suspension bridge in Africa, but tolls so high that hardly anyone crosses it.

51. Montreal Olympic Stadium (Canada) โ€“ Nicknamed โ€œThe Big Owe.โ€ Took 30 years to pay off debt from 1976 Games.

52. Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai) โ€“ Announced as the worldโ€™s biggest airport. Billions sunk, almost no progress.

53. Berlin Brandenburg U-Bahn Extension (Germany) โ€“ Decades of โ€œplanning,โ€ massive costs, little functionality, and corruption whispers.

54. Aรฉrotrain Project (France, 1970s) โ€“ Billions poured into futuristic hovertrain, scrapped by government in favor of TGV. Prototype rusting in fields.

55. Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium (India, โ€œModi-domeโ€) โ€“ Worldโ€™s largest cricket stadium named after Modi (after renaming Patel). Lavish, but rarely filled.

56. Sochi Fisht Stadium (Russia) โ€“ Built for 2014 Olympics, then abandoned, then repurposed for World Cup, now semi-idle.

57. Brasรญliaโ€™s โ€œDigital Cityโ€ (Brazil) โ€“ Hyped as a tech hub, ended as ghost offices and weed-choked roads.

58. Stuttgart 21 (Germany) โ€“ Train station mega-project: billions over budget, still unfinished, endless protests.

59. Kuwaitโ€™s Silk City (Madinat al-Hareer) โ€“ Announced as $132B futuristic city. Years later: empty sand, PowerPoint slides, and corruption allegations.

60. โ€œSmartโ€ Ghost Towers in Luanda (Angola) โ€“ Luxury apartments for elites, but power outages and zero middle-class buyers turned them into dead investments.


๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ—๏ธ Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Projects Worldwide

(By INVESTMENT THE ORIGINAL, est. 2000 A.D.)


61โ€“80

  1. Dubaiโ€™s Underwater Tennis Stadium ๐ŸŽพ๐ŸŒŠ โ€“ Announced with CGI renderings, never built, but still โ€œattracted investors.โ€
  2. Russiaโ€™s Floating Nuclear Plant โ€œAkademik Lomonosovโ€ โš›๏ธโ›ด๏ธ โ€“ The worldโ€™s first floating Chernobyl, parked like a ticking time bomb.
  3. Mexicoโ€™s โ€œDragon-Shaped Airportโ€ Design ๐Ÿ‰๐Ÿ›ซ โ€“ An over-budget fantasy blueprint that never left the drawing board.
  4. Californiaโ€™s Desert High-Speed Train to Nowhere ๐Ÿš„๐Ÿœ๏ธ โ€“ $20 billion sunk, but still no tracks between Bakersfield and LA.
  5. South Koreaโ€™s Artificial Ski Resort with No Snow ๐ŸŽฟ๐Ÿ”ฅ โ€“ Built in a temperate zone, requires insane energy to create snow.
  6. Spainโ€™s Ciudad Real Airport ๐Ÿ›ฌ๐Ÿ’ธ โ€“ A โ‚ฌ1 billion airport that opened, then shut down within 3 years due to zero passengers.
  7. Hambantota Port, Sri Lanka โš“๐Ÿผ โ€“ A Chinese-financed mega-port so underused it was leased back to China for 99 years.
  8. Kazakhstanโ€™s Pyramid of Peace and Accord ๐Ÿ”บ๐Ÿ•Š๏ธ โ€“ A giant glass pyramid in Astana with no real function beyond being weird.
  9. Icelandโ€™s โ€œIce Palaceโ€ Tourist Center โ„๏ธ๐Ÿฐ โ€“ Designed to lure tourists, collapsed under its own icy weight.
  10. Athens Olympic Venues (2004) ๐ŸŸ๏ธโšฐ๏ธ โ€“ Billions spent, now abandoned stadiums filled with weeds and graffiti.
  11. Indiaโ€™s Bullet Train Project (Mumbaiโ€“Ahmedabad) ๐Ÿš…๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ โ€“ Announced in 2014, still stuck in land disputes and politics.
  12. Brazilโ€™s Manaus Monorail ๐Ÿš๐ŸŒด โ€“ Planned to โ€œmodernize the Amazon,โ€ but not a single meter was completed.
  13. Qatarโ€™s Lusail Stadium Infrastructure โšฝ๐Ÿœ๏ธ โ€“ A desert mega-stadium city built for one World Cup, now nearly empty.
  14. Germanyโ€™s Elbphilharmonie Hamburg ๐ŸŽผ๐Ÿ—๏ธ โ€“ Planned at โ‚ฌ77 million, ballooned to โ‚ฌ866 million before completion.
  15. Turkeyโ€™s Istanbul โ€œCrazy Canalโ€ ๐Ÿšข๐ŸŒ€ โ€“ ErdoฤŸanโ€™s megalomaniac plan to dig a parallel Bosphorus, still digging politically.
  16. Chinaโ€™s Ghost Highways ๐Ÿ›ฃ๏ธ๐Ÿ‘ป โ€“ Entire expressways built to nowhere, lined with empty gas stations.
  17. Greeceโ€™s Hellenikon Airport Redevelopment โœˆ๏ธ๐Ÿ–๏ธ โ€“ Once Europeโ€™s largest urban project, mostly stuck in corruption limbo.
  18. Montenegroโ€™s Highway of Nowhere ๐Ÿšง๐Ÿ’ฐ โ€“ Financed by China, incomplete, and drowning Montenegro in debt.
  19. South Africaโ€™s Medupi Power Station โšก๐Ÿ”ฅ โ€“ Billions wasted, plagued by design flaws, and still not fully operational.
  20. Parisโ€™s โ€œLes Halles Revampโ€ ๐Ÿ™๏ธ๐Ÿ”„ โ€“ Supposed to be Europeโ€™s most modern hub, turned into Europeโ€™s most chaotic construction site.

๐Ÿ‘‰

๐ŸŒ Top 100 Infrastructure Investment Disasters (81โ€“100) ๐Ÿšง๐Ÿ’ธ


81. Tbilisi Bypass Road (Georgia, 2010s) โ€“ Abandoned mid-construction, swallowed by landslides, turning into a deadly hiking path.
82. Addis Ababa Bole Airport Expansion (Ethiopia, 2018) โ€“ Inaugurated before completion, luggage belts jammed on opening day.
83. Genoa Morandi Bridge (Italy, 2018) โ€“ Structural neglect meets tragedy; collapse killed dozens.
84. Nacala Port (Mozambique, 2010s) โ€“ Promised gateway for Africa, delivered corruption and half-empty warehouses.
85. Lyonโ€“Turin Rail Link (France/Italy, 2000sโ€“today) โ€“ Still tunneling, still fighting environmental lawsuits, no train in sight.
86. Olkiluoto Nuclear Plant Grid Connection (Finland, 2000sโ€“2023) โ€“ Europeโ€™s longest-running nuclear construction farce.
87. Sรฃo Paulo Monorail (Brazil, 2010s) โ€“ Expensive concrete snake to nowhere, derailed during testing.
88. Northโ€“South Expressway (Vietnam, ongoing) โ€“ Tender chaos, bidders disqualified, endless restarts.
89. East Coast Main Line Upgrades (UK, 2000sโ€“2020s) โ€“ โ€œDigital railwayโ€ delayed so long it became obsolete mid-upgrade.
90. Shinyanga Airport (Tanzania, 2010s) โ€“ Built to boost tourism, but no airlines wanted to land there.
91. Mexico City New Airport (NAICM, canceled 2018) โ€“ $13 billion sunk before cancellation; now half-built ruins.
92. Berlin A100 Extension (Germany, 2020s) โ€“ Billions for concrete, fought by climate activists, built slower than medieval cathedrals.
93. LaGuardia Airport Renovation (USA, 2010s) โ€“ โ€œThird Worldโ€ to โ€œSecond Worldโ€ status, still plagued by leaks and delays.
94. Delhiโ€“Meerut Expressway (India, 2010sโ€“2020s) โ€“ Promised 45 minutes, delivered hours-long traffic jams.
95. King Shaka Airport (South Africa, 2010) โ€“ Built for 2010 FIFA World Cup; now an underused white elephant.
96. Dakar TER Rail Project (Senegal, 2010s) โ€“ Opened years late, riddled with malfunctions, protests ongoing.
97. Kabul Ring Road (Afghanistan, 2000s) โ€“ NATO poured billions into a highway that ends in bomb craters.
98. E-Highway Pilot (Germany, 2020s) โ€“ Trucks with pantographs looked futuristic, but trial quietly shelved.
99. Panama Canal Expansion (2016) โ€“ New locks already cracking, lawsuits still unresolved.
100. Grand Inga Dam (DR Congo, 2000sโ€“today) โ€“ The โ€œAfrican megaprojectโ€ that exists mostly in PowerPoints and corruption trials.


๐Ÿ‘‰

Hereโ€™s the Methodology for the Top 100 Most Absurd Infrastructure Investments (INVESTMENT THE ORIGINAL) ranking:


๐Ÿ“Š Methodology: How We Ranked the Madness of Infrastructure

  1. Historical Infamy (0โ€“25 points)
    • Projects remembered for their scale of absurdity, financial waste, or political scandal.
    • Examples: โ€œbridges to nowhere,โ€ ghost airports, or Olympic stadiums abandoned after two weeks.
  2. Financial Black Hole (0โ€“25 points)
    • Measured by cost overruns, debt burdens, and how much taxpayer or investor money was swallowed.
    • โ€œBudget tripled overnightโ€ scored high.
  3. Uselessness Factor (0โ€“20 points)
    • Evaluated by actual utility: is it used daily or is it a monument to nothing?
    • The emptier, the higher the score.
  4. Political Theater (0โ€“15 points)
    • Weight given to propaganda, prestige, and corruption scandals tied to the project.
    • Dictators love vanity megaprojects, and so do local politicians before elections.
  5. Cultural Meme Value (0โ€“15 points)
    • Internet mockery, media coverage, and symbolic meaning of failure.
    • Example: Italyโ€™s โ€œendless constructionโ€ highways or Spainโ€™s ghost airports.

๐Ÿงฎ Calculation

  • Each project was scored out of 100 total points based on the above five categories.
  • Final ranking = projects with the highest combined absurdity score, judged by INVESTMENT THE ORIGINALโ€™s editorial board, cross-referencing economic reports, infrastructure databases, watchdog investigations, and public ridicule archives (yes, memes were counted).

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โœŒTOP 100 ARKANSAS CORRUPTION SCANDALS: From Diamond Deals to Disgraced Dignitaries๐Ÿ‘Œ

An Arkansas crime boss slyly passes an envelope of cash to a smug bureaucrat in a smoke-filled backroom โ€” a symbolic scene of deep-rooted local corruption cloaked in Southern charm and backdoor deals.


TOP 100 ARKANSAS CORRUPTION SCANDALS: From Diamond Deals to Disgraced Dignitaries

WELCOME TO GLOBAL CORRUPTISTAN PART 21

Methodology:
This ranking compiles the most notorious corruption scandals in Arkansas history, using the following criteria:

  • Financial damage (public funds lost, bribes, misappropriations)
  • Political influence (involvement of high-level officials or institutions)
  • Legal consequences (indictments, convictions, settlements)
  • Media coverage (national or international attention)
  • Systemic impact (effects on laws, public trust, governance)

Here are the first 20 entries from the Top 100 Arkansas Corruption Scandals:

  1. Whitewater Scandal โ€“ The infamous real estate deal involving Bill and Hillary Clinton that sparked years of investigation and conspiracy.
  2. Governor Orval Faubusโ€™ Highway Scandal โ€“ Misuse of state funds to favor cronies through shady highway contracts in the 1950s.
  3. Judge Wendell Griffen Controversy โ€“ A sitting judge who sparked outrage over ethics concerns and politically charged activism.
  4. Arkansas Lottery Commission Fraud โ€“ Accusations of favoritism, misappropriation of funds, and no accountability in jackpot management.
  5. Jon Woods Kickback Scheme โ€“ State senator convicted for funneling state funds to non-profits in return for bribes.
  6. Magnet Schools Money Pit โ€“ Millions in state education funds disappeared into construction and โ€œconsultingโ€ with little oversight.
  7. Mike Maggio Bribery Case โ€“ Circuit judge accepted campaign donations to reduce a nursing home judgment.
  8. Arkansas Prison Labor Exploitation โ€“ Under-the-table deals using prison labor for private gain, without inmate consent.
  9. State Police Cruiser Procurement Kickbacks โ€“ Inflated contracts and secret commissions on vehicle purchases.
  10. Rick Crawfordโ€™s Agriculture Lobby Ties โ€“ Quiet deals between congressman and agri-business interests while chairing a House subcommittee.
  11. โ€œOperation Big Countryโ€ Drug Task Force Scandal โ€“ Seized assets misused, evidence tampered, and funds unaccounted for.
  12. University of Arkansas Audit Leak โ€“ Millions unaccounted for at the Fayetteville campus amidst a shredded trail of bookkeeping.
  13. Little Rock Housing Authority Embezzlement โ€“ Misuse of federal HUD funds intended for affordable housing.
  14. Blytheville Mayor’s Office Payroll Padding โ€“ Nepotism and non-existent employees on city payroll.
  15. Attorney General Leslie Rutledgeโ€™s PR Contracts โ€“ Lavish contracts handed to political allies with little public value.
  16. Arkansas DMV Licensing Scheme โ€“ Illegally selling commercial licenses through bribes and fake tests.
  17. State Capitol Renovation Graft โ€“ Contractors connected to legislators benefited from bloated refurbishing contracts.
  18. Camden Police Evidence Room Scandal โ€“ Thousands in drugs, cash, and guns vanished with no convictions.
  19. Arkansas Game & Fish Bribery Ring โ€“ Wildlife permits granted in exchange for donations and exotic hunting trips.
  20. Rural Broadband Boondoggle โ€“ Multi-million-dollar digital infrastructure plan mysteriously vanished into consultant fees.

Here are entries 21โ€“40 from the Top 100 Arkansas Corruption Scandals:

  1. Fort Smith School Board Payoffs โ€“ Backdoor deals on land purchases and construction contracts.
  2. Medicaid Overbilling Ring in Pine Bluff โ€“ Fraudulent claims through shell clinics siphoning state healthcare funds.
  3. Hot Springs Casino Licensing Scandal โ€“ Gambling permits handed out in exchange for political donations and favors.
  4. Sherwood Municipal Court Profiteering โ€“ Systematically jailing poor residents over fines in a judicial-for-profit scheme.
  5. Texarkana Border Tax Dodge โ€“ Officials rigging city lines and taxes to benefit connected businesses.
  6. Russellville Nuclear Plant Kickbacks โ€“ Energy officials receiving bribes to greenlight flawed safety contracts.
  7. State Board of Education Lobby Pipeline โ€“ Lawmakers turned lobbyists shaping education policy for private gain.
  8. Fake Agritourism Grants in Ozarks โ€“ Money funneled to fake rural tourism ventures connected to legislators.
  9. Corrupt Rural Sheriff Drug Operations โ€“ Multiple sheriffs implicated in seizing and reselling confiscated narcotics.
  10. North Little Rock Utility Embezzlement โ€“ Executives funneled ratepayer money into fake service contracts.
  11. Cleburne County Assessor Bribe Scandal โ€“ Lowered land valuations in exchange for โ€œcampaign support.โ€
  12. Jonesboro City Hall Procurement Scam โ€“ Inflated bids and contract-rigging with construction firms.
  13. Pulaski County Juvenile Court Fraud โ€“ Ghost programs billing for nonexistent youth services.
  14. Fake Veteran Services Nonprofit โ€“ State grants embezzled by a group posing as a vet support network.
  15. Springdale Real Estate Favoritism โ€“ Rezoning and permits exchanged for political donations and land gifts.
  16. Van Buren County Road Fraud โ€“ Materials never delivered, bridges never built, funds vanished.
  17. ARKANSASdotCOM Embezzlement โ€“ State website contractor siphoning tech budget through shell companies.
  18. Conway School District Nepotism Case โ€“ Board members placing family in key positions with padded salaries.
  19. Bauxite Mining Environmental Bribes โ€“ Regulators ignoring pollution for industry kickbacks.
  20. Southeast Arkansas Agricultural Swindle โ€“ Subsidies and loans directed to phantom farms controlled by insiders.

Here are entries 41โ€“60 from the Top 100 Arkansas Corruption Scandals:

  1. Corrupt Water Board in Camden โ€“ Misused infrastructure funds to pay off personal debts of board members.
  2. Magnolia Timber Rights Kickback Scheme โ€“ Officials rigged bids for forestry access, earning undisclosed profits.
  3. Beebe Mayorโ€™s โ€œFamily Firstโ€ Hiring Spree โ€“ City jobs handed out to relatives, regardless of qualifications.
  4. Arkansas Lottery Insider Payouts โ€“ Contract awards tied to campaign donors and backroom deals.
  5. Corrupt Municipal Bond Brokers โ€“ Sold junk bonds to cities, split profits with complicit officials.
  6. Bogus Broadband Rollout in Rural Areas โ€“ Millions allocated, minimal infrastructure delivered, funds disappeared.
  7. Searcy Police Asset Forfeiture Abuse โ€“ Cars and cash seized under flimsy pretenses, rarely returned.
  8. Arkansas Poultry Processing Exploitation Cover-Up โ€“ Regulators bribed to ignore illegal labor practices.
  9. Marion County “Wellness Grant” Fraud โ€“ Fake health programs created solely to launder public funds.
  10. State Fire Marshal Kickbacks โ€“ Inspection approvals exchanged for envelopes full of cash.
  11. Hemp Licensing Pay-to-Play โ€“ Licenses granted only to โ€œconnectedโ€ companies willing to pay.
  12. Ghost Employees in the Department of Transportation โ€“ Payroll padded with fake workers linked to officials.
  13. Jonesboro Storm Recovery Fund Theft โ€“ Disaster relief funds redirected to contractor friends.
  14. Political Influence in Little Rock Art Grants โ€“ Art funding tied to campaign contributions and donor clubs.
  15. Rogers Housing Authority Embezzlement โ€“ Public housing funds rerouted to luxury travel and personal accounts.
  16. Fake Veterans Housing Program in El Dorado โ€“ No homes built, money pocketed by nonprofit director and allies.
  17. Saline County Sheriffโ€™s Department Procurement Scam โ€“ Equipment bought at inflated prices from cronies.
  18. Illegal Cannabis Tax Diversion โ€“ Excise funds quietly funneled into private investment projects.
  19. Mountain View Historic Restoration Scheme โ€“ Millions spent on projects that never began, contractors vanished.
  20. Judsonia Public Library Laundering Case โ€“ A tiny town library used to pass through six-figure โ€œbook orders.โ€

Here are entries 61โ€“80 from the Top 100 Arkansas Corruption Scandals:

  1. Corrupt COVID Relief Distribution Network โ€“ Aid funds awarded to shell companies tied to officials.
  2. Phillips County Voter Suppression-for-Hire Plot โ€“ Private security paid to โ€œdisappearโ€ ballots in minority areas.
  3. Fake Tech Hub in Bentonville โ€“ Promised innovation center was a cover for real estate speculation.
  4. Pulaski County Forensic Lab Bribery Ring โ€“ Evidence tampering in exchange for payments from defense attorneys.
  5. Arkansas State Senate “Consulting” Scam โ€“ Retiring senators awarded fake advisory gigs.
  6. Jefferson County Fake Fuel Audit โ€“ Reported fuel consumption by vehicles that didnโ€™t exist.
  7. East Arkansas Tourism Board Laundering โ€“ Ghost festivals and events used as cover for diverting state funds.
  8. Arkadelphia Flood Insurance Fraud Ring โ€“ Claims made for damage that never occurred, funds split.
  9. Hot Springs Luxury Convention Kickbacks โ€“ Lavish vendor contracts awarded for personal benefits.
  10. Jonesboro Medical Licensing Black Market โ€“ Licenses sold under the table to out-of-state operators.
  11. Ouachita County Courthouse IT Upgrade Scam โ€“ Old computers resold as new, with inflated invoices.
  12. Mayflower Oil Spill Cleanup Scam โ€“ Environmental remediation funds siphoned off into dummy firms.
  13. State-Funded Evangelical โ€œEducation Retreatsโ€ โ€“ Religious events billed as training seminars.
  14. Faulkner County Bail Bond Conspiracy โ€“ Judges and bail bondsmen colluding to keep jails full.
  15. Springdale โ€œGreen Schoolโ€ Ponzi Project โ€“ Eco-education campus used to lure investors, never built.
  16. Fort Smith Economic Development Diversion โ€“ Corporate subsidies misused to fund luxury condos.
  17. Booneville Nursing Home Inspection Scandal โ€“ Paid-for clean reports despite rampant neglect.
  18. Texarkana Border Trade Scam โ€“ Fake tariffs collected on non-existent cross-border shipments.
  19. Harrison Civil Asset Forfeiture Shake-Downs โ€“ Localsโ€™ property seized under vague criminal accusations.
  20. Arkansas Secretary of State Crypto Kickback Plot โ€“ Election data contractor offered coins for contracts.

Here are entries 81โ€“100 from the Top 100 Arkansas Corruption Scandals:

  1. Fayetteville “Green Roof” Bribery Ring โ€“ Construction company bribed officials for eco-certification fraud.
  2. Arkansas State Prison Telecom Kickback Scheme โ€“ Profits from inmate phone systems funneled to officials.
  3. Crooked Wildlife Reserve Contracts โ€“ Land โ€œprotectedโ€ under inflated deals benefiting developers.
  4. Little Rock Highway Billboard Graft โ€“ Permits for billboards traded for campaign donations.
  5. Clark County โ€œBridge to Nowhereโ€ โ€“ Federal funds vanished into nonexistent infrastructure.
  6. White County Pardon-for-Cash Network โ€“ Convicted criminals bought commuted sentences.
  7. Fake Veteran Housing Complex in Conway โ€“ Funds diverted to personal use while vets stayed homeless.
  8. State Insurance Board Insider Trading Plot โ€“ Board members using info to bet against their own system.
  9. โ€œRural Broadbandโ€ Funding Funnel โ€“ Millions awarded to shell ISPs that never laid cables.
  10. Washington County Opioid Kickbacks โ€“ Doctors and pharmacists paid off by shady distributors.
  11. Ghost Police Precinct in Pine Bluff โ€“ Budget approved for an entire precinct that never existed.
  12. State University Diplomas-for-Donations Scheme โ€“ Wealthy donors’ children handed degrees.
  13. North Little Rock Trash Collection Graft โ€“ Private firm overbilled with collusion from city managers.
  14. Malvern Water Purification Scam โ€“ Water safety funds routed to foreign shell accounts.
  15. State Railroad โ€œUpgradeโ€ That Wasnโ€™t โ€“ Maintenance funds vanished after contracts awarded to cronies.
  16. Cash-for-Lawsuit Settlements in Camden โ€“ Civil lawsuits settled out of court in exchange for hush bribes.
  17. Rogers Artificial Intelligence Grant Scam โ€“ โ€œAI incubatorโ€ was a front for money laundering.
  18. Arkansas Tax Credit Fraud Ring โ€“ Fake businesses used to claim huge state tax rebates.
  19. Mountain Home Police Training Funds Theft โ€“ Training program budgets pocketed by officials.
  20. El Dorado Environmental Fine Forgiveness Racket โ€“ Industrial polluters paid bribes to erase penalties.

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$ 750 Million Missed in DRC

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A poisonous blend of debasement and bungle in Democratic Republic of Congo’s incomes organizations and state mining organizations is draining a fifth of all mining incomes far from the state spending plan, Global Witness uncovers today. Its report ‘Administration Cash Machine’ demonstrates that in any event $750 million disappeared more than three years โ€“ cash that ought to have been utilized on fundamental open administrations for the Congolese individuals.

The discoveries come during a period of extraordinary political turmoil in Congo as the beset President Joseph Kabila sticks to control. “Congo’s mining incomes ought to be lifting its kin out of destitution, yet rather colossal totals are being siphoned far from general society tote and into unaccountable offices headed up by individuals with binds to political elites,” said Pete Jones, Global Witness Senior Campaigner.

Congo is Africa’s best copper maker and the world’s greatest provider of cobalt, which is utilized as a part of the lithium-particle batteries that power electric autos and amidst a value blast. Regardless of this, Congo stays one of the poorest nations on the planet. ‘Administration Cash Machine’ examinations the most recent information from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which uncovers that in the vicinity of 2013 and 2015 over $750 million of installments by mining organizations to Congo’s assessment offices and state mining organizations never achieved the national treasury. That figure ascends to a surprising $1.3 billion when other state bodies and a now-outdated commonplace assessment body are incorporated.

“A portion of the exchanges we’ve taken a gander at illustrate these organizations as a money machine for Kabila’s administration”, said Jones. “In the event that Congo is to abstain from losing the faith into strife and disorder, genuine straightforwardness and responsibility is required all through the mining segment and in the assessment organizations,” Jones said.

The discoveries come as Congo slips assist into political vulnerability. The nation is wracked by on-going political brutality and distress, following Kabila’s refusal to venture down from control notwithstanding an established mandate. A key reason for discontent with the administration is the ceaseless absence of subsidizing by the legislature in fundamental administrations, for example, schools, healing centers and streets.

“For quite a long time Global Witness and others have archived how incomes have spilled from Congo’s mining segment into seaward shell organizations. Presently we can see that even incomes paid to government bodies in Congo are disappearing before they achieve the treasury,” Jones included.

A key offender in this preoccupation of assets is the principle state-claimed mining organization, Gรฉcamines. It gets more than a hundred million dollars every year from privately owned businesses in Congo’s mining part, however seems to pass on only a modest rate of that to the state coffers. Gรฉcamines’ most imperative and lucrative business connections are with significant worldwide mining organizations, which regularly have Western financial specialists and benefits tied up in their benefits and dangers.

While its commitments to Congo’s open satchel are little, Gรฉcamines sufficiently discovered cash to pay off immense advances from Dan Gertler, a dear companion of President Kabila. One of Gertler’s organizations was reimbursed in the meantime as Gรฉcamines’ staff went unpaid and more seasoned advances stayed extraordinary.

Congo’s duty offices are likewise to fault. Current law enables them to keep down a rate of the fines they exact, which has prompted ruthless lease looking for conduct and created fines as they try to expand the amount they can keep as their own particular assets. The greater part of this adds up to a type of authorized debasement.

The Congolese constitution expresses that each Congolese individual has the privilege to appreciate the advantages of the nation’s national riches, and that the state has an obligation to redistribute that riches evenhandedly and ensure the privilege to advancement. To by far most of Congolese, those are unfilled words. A long time of fumble and debasement inside Gรฉcamines, consolidated with a divided duty framework, imply that the framework is interested in manhandle by political elites trying to remove money from the mining division.

“The best way to put a conclusion to the redirecting of these indispensable assets is to revamp the divided duty framework and to demand full straightforwardness from Gรฉcamines. We have to know the amount it wins, the amount it pays to the treasury, and what it spends its cash on,” said Jones.

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Mountaga Bah fought to save his home from foreclosure in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lost.  Now, he has the opportunity to reopen the case, due to a conflict of interest uncovered in a Center investigation. (Jared Angle) 

Dear Reader, Imagine โ€” in order to save your home from foreclosure, you must win a legal battle against the banking giant, Wells Fargo. You lose the case. Then you discover one of the deciding judges owned stock in the bank. Would that feel like justice to you?

This scenario is a reality for a Maryland resident, and is just one example of many conflicts of interests discovered in a recent Center investigation, Juris Imprudence.

We looked at the three most recent years of financial disclosures filed by 255 appellate court judges and discovered 24 cases where judges owned stock in a company with a case before them.

Thanks to your support of this time-consuming work, our journalists were able to shine a light on injustice. But we need your help to continue.

Help us hold the justice system accountable
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Your support creates real impact. When the Center notified the judges of our findings, 16 judges sent letters to the parties in all of the cases we discovered, admitting to the mistake. These letters are the first step in possibly reopening the cases and giving people a chance at a fair trial.

Federal appellate court judges are incredibly influential. They can strike down or uphold a president’s healthcare law, change how the Internet works and determine how universities admit students. Their decisions affect us all. That’s why I’m confident that you will donate to our 2014 Annual Fund and invest in our ability to hold these powerful figures accountable. 

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As a nonprofit newsroom, we depend on supporters like you. Investigations like this require huge investments of time and resources, meaning other news outlets ignore these stories. But not the Center โ€” our reporting is rigorous, fiercely independent and made possible by your generosity.

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Inside Corrupt Viktor Yanukovych Villa ะ’ะธะบั‚ะพั€ะฐ ะฏะฝัƒะบะพะฒะธั‡ะฐ Video

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Corrupt Chinese Money – Die geheimen Reichtรผmer der korrupten China-Kommunisten enthรผllt

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Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of Chinaโ€™s Elite

offshore leaks china
Illustration: Tim Meko

Files shed light on nearly 22,000 tax haven clients from Hong Kong and mainland China.

Note: A Chinese version of this story is available here

Close relatives of Chinaโ€™s top leaders have held secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist eliteโ€™s wealth, a leaked cache of documents reveals.

The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by current President Xi Jinpingโ€™s brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by former Premier Wen Jiabaoโ€™s son and also by his son-in-law.

Nearly 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong appear in the files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  Among them are some of Chinaโ€™s most powerful men and women โ€” including at least 15 of Chinaโ€™s richest, members of the National Peopleโ€™s Congress and executives from state-owned companies entangled in corruption scandals.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, UBS and other Western banks and accounting firms play a key role as middlemen in helping Chinese clients set up trusts and companies in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers usually associated with hidden wealth, the records show. For instance, Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse helped Wen Jiabaoโ€™s son create his BVI company while his father was leading the country.

The files come from two offshore firms โ€” Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited โ€” that help clients create offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts. They are part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked files that ICIJ has sifted through with help from more than 50 reporting partners in Europe, North America, Asia and other regions.

Since last April, ICIJโ€™s stories have triggered official inquiries, high-profile resignations and policy changes around the world.

Until now, the details on China and Hong Kong had not been disclosed.

The data illustrates the outsized dependency of the worldโ€™s second largest economy on tiny islands thousands of miles away.  As the country has moved from an insular communist system to a socialist/capitalist hybrid, China has become a leading market for offshore havens that peddle secrecy, tax shelters and streamlined international deal making.

Every corner of Chinaโ€™s economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data.

Xi Jinping and Wen JiabaoXi Jinping and Wen Jiabao: relatives appear in ICIJ’s data.

Chinese officials arenโ€™t required to disclose their assets publicly and until now citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left the country since 2000.

The growing onshore and offshore wealth of Chinaโ€™s elites โ€œmay not be strictly illegal,โ€ but it is often tied to โ€œconflict of interest and covert use of government power,โ€ said Minxin Pei, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. โ€œIf there is real transparency, then the Chinese people will have a much better idea of how corrupt the system is [and] how much wealth has been amassed by government officials through illegal means.โ€

Top-level corruption is a politically sensitive issue in China as the country’s economy cools and its wealth gap continues to widen.  The countryโ€™s leadership has cracked down on journalists who have exposed the hidden wealth of top officials and their families as well as citizens who have demanded that government officials disclose their personal assets.

In November, a mainland Chinese news organization that was working with ICIJ to analyze the offshore data withdrew from the reporting partnership, explaining that authorities had warned it not to publish anything about the material.

—————-
READ: HOW WE WORKED TO REPORT THIS STORY SECURELY IN CHINA
—————-

ICIJ is keeping the identity of the news outlet confidential to protect journalists from government retaliation. Other partners in the investigation include the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, the Taiwanese magazine CommonWealth and the German newspaper Sรผddeutsche Zeitung.

The ICIJ team spent months sifting through the files and the leaked lists of offshore users. In most cases, names were registered in Romanized form, not Chinese characters, making matching extremely difficult. Many offshore users had provided a passport as well as an address when they set up their companies, which made it possible to confirm identities in many but not all cases. Some suspected princelings and officials in the files could not be confirmed and have not been included in this story.

Along with the China and Hong Kong names, ICIJโ€™s files also include the names of roughly 16,000 offshore clients from Taiwan. ICIJ will continue to publish stories with its partners in the next few days and will release the Greater China names on its Offshore Leaks Database on Jan. 23.

Whoโ€™s Who in Chinaโ€™s Offshore Circles: Tap to see where the money goes

Graphic: Chris Zubak-Skees. Illustrations: Jesรบs Pรฉrez. Photos: AP, Ming Pao, Angรฉlica Rivera de Peรฑa (CC BY-SA), World Economic Forum (CC BY-SA) and White House. The Red NobilityThe WealthyDeng JiaguiBrother-in-law of President Xi Jinping Wen YunsongSon of former Premier Wen JiabaoLiu ChunhangSon-in-law of former Premier Wen Jiabao Hu YishiFirst cousin once removed of former President Hu Jintao Li XiaolinDaughter of former Premier Li Peng Wu JianchangSon-in-law of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping Che FengSon-in-law of a former central bank governorWang ZhiSon of a former vice presidentWang JunSon of a former vice presidentFu LiangSon of one of ‘Eight Elders’ of the Communist Party Yeh Shuen-jiNephew of one of PRC’s founders Wang JingjingGrandaughter of a former vice presidentSu ZhijunGrandson of one of best-known PLA commandersMa HuatengCo-founder of Internet giant TencentYang HuiyanChina’s richest womanZhang XinCo-founder of property developer SOHO China Zhang ZhidongCo-founder of Internet giant TencentShen GuojunChairman of Yintai GroupJia YuetingChairman of web video giant Leshi Huang GuangyuJailed founder of GOME appliances chainDu JuanGOME executive and wife of founder Lu ZhiqiangChairman of OceanwideLi JinyuanChairman of Tiens GroupDai ZhikangFounder of Zendai Investment Group Du ShuanghuaChairman of Rizhao Holding Group Ma JianrongChairman of Shenzhou InternationalWen YiboFounder of Sound GlobalShi ZhengrongFounder of solar-panel maker SuntechZhou ZhengyiJailed Shanghai property developer

Princelings go offshore

China’s Politburo Standing Committee is the all-powerful group of seven (formerly nine) men who run the Communist Party and the country. The records obtained by ICIJ show that relatives of at least five current or former members of this small circle have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands.

Chinaโ€™s โ€œred nobilityโ€ โ€” elites tied by blood or marriage to the current leadership or Party elders โ€” are also popularly known as โ€œprincelings.โ€ Ordinary Chinese have grown increasingly angry over their vast wealth and what many see as the hypocrisy of officials who tout โ€œpeople-firstโ€ ideals but look the other way while their families peddle power and influence for personal gain.

The leaked offshore records include details of a BVI company 50 percent owned by President Xiโ€™s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui. The husband of Xiโ€™s older sister, Deng is a multimillionaire real estate developer and an investor in metals used in cell phones and other electronics. The records show the other half of Excellence Effort Property Development was owned by yet another BVI company belonging to Li Wa and Li Xiaoping, property tycoons who made news in July by winning a $2 billion bid to purchase commercial real estate in Shenzhen.

Since taking over as the Communist Partyโ€™s top official in 2012, Xi has sought to burnish his image with an aggressive anti-graft campaign, promising to go after official corruption involving both low-level โ€œfliesโ€ and high-level โ€œtigers.โ€ Yet he has crushed a grassroots movement that called for government officials to publicly declare their assets. Wen Jiabao, who stepped down as premier in 2013 after a decade-long tenure, also styled himself as a reformer, cultivating an image of grandfatherly concern for Chinaโ€™s poor.

The ICIJ offshore files reveal that Wenโ€™s son Wen Yunsong set up a BVI-registered company, Trend Gold Consultants, with help from the Hong Kong office of Credit Suisse in 2006. Wen Yunsong was the lone director and shareholder of the firm, which appears to have been dissolved in 2008.

Bare-bones company structures are often created to open bank accounts in the offshore firmโ€™s name, helping obscure the relationship to the real account owner. It isnโ€™t immediately clear from the documents what Trend Gold Consultants was used for. A U.S.-educated venture capitalist, Wen Yunsong co-founded a China-focused private equity firm and in 2012 became chairman of Chinaโ€™s Satellite Communications Co., a state-owned firm that aspires to be Asiaโ€™s largest satellite operator.

ICIJ made repeated attempts to reach Wen Yunsong and other individuals named in this story. Only a few responded. Wen was among those who did not. Citing confidentiality rules, a Credit Suisse spokesman said the bank is โ€œunable to comment on this matter.โ€

The ICIJ files also shed light on the BVIโ€™s previously unreported role in a burgeoning scandal involving Wen Jiabaoโ€™s daughter, Wen Ruchun, also known as Lily Chang. The New York Times has reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid a firm that she ran, Fullmark Consultants, $1.8 million in consulting fees. U.S. securities regulators are investigating the relationship as part of a probe into the bankโ€™s alleged use of princelings to increase its influence in China.

Fullmark Consultants appears to have been set up in a manner that obscured Wen Ruchunโ€™s relationship to the firm, the ICIJ files indicate. Her name does not show up in any of the incorporation documents in the ICIJ data, though a ‘Lily Chang’ is CCโ€™d in one August, 2009 email correspondence about the company. Her husband Liu Chunhang, a former Morgan Stanley finance guru, created Fullmark Consultants in the BVI in 2004 and was the sole director and shareholder of the firm until 2006, the same year he took a government job at the agency that regulates Chinaโ€™s banking industry.

Liu transferred control of the company, the ICIJ files show, to a Wen family friend, Zhang Yuhong, a wealthy businesswoman and colleague of Wen Jiabaoโ€™s brother. The Times reported that Zhang also helped control other Wen family assets including diamond and jewelry ventures.  

The ICIJ files show that offshore provider Portcullis TrustNet billed UBS AG for a certificate of good standing for Fullmark Consultants in October 2005, indicating a business relationship between Fullmark and the Swiss bank. In response to ICIJโ€™s questions, UBS issued a statement saying its โ€œknow-your-clientโ€ policies as well as procedures to deal with politically-sensitive clients are among โ€œthe strictest in the industry.โ€ Liu and Zhang did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.

A 2007 U.S. Department of State cable passed along a sourceโ€™s tip that Premier Wen was โ€œdisgusted with his familyโ€™s activities,โ€ and that โ€œWenโ€™s wife and children all have a reputation as people who can โ€˜get things doneโ€™ for the right price.โ€ The cable, part of the Wikileaks document dump, reported that Wenโ€™s kin โ€œdid not necessarily take bribes, [but] they are amenable to receiving exorbitant โ€˜consulting fees.โ€™ โ€

The records also include incorporations by relatives of Deng Xiaoping, former Premier Li Peng, and former President Hu Jintao.

China experts say that the growing wealth and business interests of the princelings, including offshore holdings, are a dangerous liability for the ruling Communist Party but that people in leadership positions are too involved to stop it.

โ€œWhatโ€™s the point of running the Communist Party if you canโ€™t get a couple billion for your family?โ€ said Steve Dickinson, a China-based American lawyer who has investigated fraud cases involving BVI companies. โ€œThe issue is enormous and has tremendous significance for China, and the fact that everybody dances around it and doesnโ€™t want to talk about it is understandable but scandalous.โ€ 

China embraces offshore

The story of Chinaโ€™s involvement with the offshore world begins with paramount leader Deng Xiaopingโ€™s deepening of economic reforms in the early 1990s. 

Laws reorganizing Chinaโ€™s economy drove many Chinese offshore because they were written with state-owned enterprises in mind, not fledgling ventures like the entrepreneur trying to โ€œmarket the latest iPhone app,โ€ according to Don Clarke, a China specialist at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Western bankers, accountants and investors wary of doing business on strictly Chinese terms also pushed the offshore model.

โ€œIt was us, the foreigners, that imposed this,โ€ said Rocky Lee, head of the Greater China corporate law practice of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. โ€œIt had to do with the foreign investorsโ€™ general discomfort with Chinese rules and regulations.โ€

Other factors โ€” including tightened capital controls within China as a result of the 1990s Asian debt crisis โ€” also nudged Chinese offshore. Many had flocked to Hong Kong, then still a British territory, to incorporate businesses. As the 1997 handover back to China approached, though, Hong Kong itself began to look risky and many companies sought more far-flung offshore destinations.

The British Virgin Islands became a favorite haven for Chinese wanting to move businesses and cash offshore.

Chinaโ€™s tax regime favored foreign investment, helping fuel the push to incorporate in the BVI and other offshore centers. Some Chinese manufacturers, for example, reduced their taxes by a maneuver known as โ€œround-trippingโ€ โ€” setting up subsidiaries outside the country, then selling their products at low cost to the subsidiaries, allowing the parent companies to avoid taxes by showing little or no profits inside China. The offshore entities in turn resold the goods at profitable markup โ€” then slipped the profits back to the parents as untaxed โ€œforeign investmentโ€ from the BVI or Hong Kong.

Today 40 percent of the BVIโ€™s offshore business comes from China and other Asian nations, according to BVI authorities.

Every corner of Chinaโ€™s economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data

Frank Savage, the BVIโ€™s governor from 1998 to 2002, says the islands helped cultivate the relationship by persuading Chinese authorities that they were a โ€œwell-regulated territory with a robust and sound legal system.โ€

Critics of the offshore system, though, see the BVI in a different light โ€” as a โ€œno-questions-askedโ€ haven for shadowy dealings. Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group, says BVI offshore entities have been linked to โ€œscandal after scandal after scandalโ€ โ€” the result of a corporate secrecy regime that creates an โ€œeffective carte blanche for BVI companies to hide and facilitate all manner of crimes and abuses.โ€

Among the important Chinese who went offshore in the late 1990s was Fu Liang, the son of Peng Zhen, one of the โ€œEight Eldersโ€ of the Communist Party and a top leader of the National Peopleโ€™s Congress in the 1980s.

Offshore Leaks records show Fu โ€” who has invested in yachting clubs and golf courses on the mainland โ€” controlled at least five offshore companies established in the BVI between 1997 and 2000. He used one of them, South Port Development Limited, to acquire a Philippines hotel in 2000.

TrustNet, the offshore services provider, helped Fu set up some of his offshore companies. By 2000, Trustnet was among the offshore services firms that were making an all-out drive to sign up clients from China, doing marketing meetings at the Shanghai offices of what were then known as the โ€œBig 5โ€ accounting firms: KPMG, Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhouse, Deloitte & Touche, and Arthur Andersen.

The audit firm now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers helped incorporate more than 400 offshore entities through TrustNet for clients from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the ICIJ records show. Swiss banking giant UBS helped set up more than 1,000 offshore structures via TrustNet for clients from those three markets.

UBS Hong Kong helped Yang Huiyan, China’s richest woman, with an estimated net worth of US$ 8.3 billion, establish a BVI company in 2006. Yang, who inherited a real estate fortune from her father, did not respond to questions about her offshore company, Joy House Enterprises Limited.

The following year the Swiss bank referred another Chinese real estate billionaire, Zhang Xin, to TrustNet. Zhang, founder of Soho China, a company that has reshaped much of the Beijing skyline, recently made headlines by buying a $26 million Manhattan townhouse.  Through a representative, Zhang declined to answer questions about her BVI company Commune Investment Ltd., a name similar to that of her exclusive boutique hotel outside Beijing, the Commune by the Great Wall.

Li Jinyuan, a business tycoon and philanthropist with a net worth estimated at $1.2 billion in 2011, was director of seven BVI companies that PricewaterhouseCoopers helped incorporate between 2004 and 2008. According to the ICIJ files, the BVI companies appear to be connected to his Tiens Group conglomerate, which has interests in biotechnology, tourism, e-commerce and real estate.

In a 2005 marketing memo marked โ€œstrictly private and confidential,โ€ TrustNet staffers were encouraged to improve ties with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. They courted Credit Suisse and UBS with wine and cheese sessions. On the mainland, where foreign banks were restricted, they took a different tack: โ€œIn Shanghai, we will target international law firms and accounting firms,โ€ the 2005 memo says.

The marketing campaign paid off. The number of companies TrustNet set up for clients in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan tripled from 1,500 to 4,800 between 2003 and 2007.

The TrustNet clients who incorporated companies during this period include two current delegates to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.

Wei Jianghong, who represents Anhui province in the legislature while serving as chairman of state-owned Tongling Nonferrous Metals, was a director of Tong Guan Resources Holdings, a BVI company set up in 2006. Tongling used Tong Guan to invest $10 million in a $50 million copper processing project in Chile in 2007.

Another delegate with offshore holdings is Ma Huateng, the founder of China’s leading online chat company, Tencent. Ma is worth $10 billion and is ranked No. 5 on Forbesโ€™ list of billionaires in China. In 2007, he became director of TCH Pi Limited in the BVI with fellow Tencent founder Zhang Zhidong.

A spokeswoman for Ma said TCH Pi is a Tencent company that โ€œhas nothing to do with [Ma or Zhang] personally,โ€ but the firm doesn’t show up in Tencent corporate filings, and its purpose isn’t clear.

Profits and corruption

Things have changed dramatically for China since it first dipped its toe into the offshore world. The country is wealthier and offshore centers serve increasingly as channels not only for capital that โ€œround-tripsโ€ out of the country and back again, but also for overseas investment and accessing markets for metals, minerals and other resources.

Defenders of Chinaโ€™s offshore push say the offshore system has helped boost the countryโ€™s economy.

โ€œI think we should face the reality, which is that Chinese capital is flowing out. I think itโ€™s actually a beneficial thing,โ€ said Mei Xinyu, a researcher at Chinaโ€™s Commerce Ministry. โ€œOf course I support the idea that a company should incorporate in its host country. But if the host country can’t provide the right environment, then incorporating the company in an offshore center is actually a practical choice.โ€

With markets in China often hamstrung by red tape and government intervention, incorporating offshore can smooth the way to do business, said William Vlcek, author of Offshore Finance and Small States: Sovereignty, Size and Money.

Thereโ€™s also evidence, though, that many Chinese companies and individuals have used offshore entities to engage in illicit or illegal behavior.

In September Zhang Shuguang, a former high-level Chinese railway executive, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the wake of allegations that heโ€™d funneled $2.8 billion into offshore accounts. An internal government report released by the Bank of China revealed that public officials โ€” including executives at state-owned companies โ€” had embezzled more than $120 billion out of China since the mid-1980s, some of it funneled through the BVI.

Portcullis TrustNet helped state-run shipping giant Cosco incorporate a BVI company in 2000. Among the numerous directors of Cosco Information Technology Limited were current Cosco Group chairman Ma Zehua and Song Jun, an executive who would stand trial in 2011 for embezzlement and bribery. After Cosco sent Song to help oversee a Qingdao subsidiary in 2001, he set up a fake BVI joint venture partner and used it to siphon millions from the building of Qingdaoโ€™s gleaming Cosco Plaza, prosecutors said. State news service Xinhua said he embezzled $6 million, took $1 million in bribes from a Taiwanese business partner and purchased 37 apartments in Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao with his ill-gotten earnings. His trial was adjourned but no verdict was publicly announced.

Chinaโ€™s corruption-plagued oil industry โ€” which recently has been the target of criminal investigations that have led to the suspension of key oil executives โ€” is a big player in the offshore world. Chinaโ€™s three big state-owned oil companies, which are counted among the largest companies in the world, are linked to dozens of BVI firms that show up in the ICIJ data.

Former PetroChina executive Li Hualin, who was dismissed in August after coming under investigation for alleged โ€œserious violations of disciplineโ€, often a party shorthand for corruption, was the director of two BVI companies, the ICIJ files reveal.

While some of these offshore firms are disclosed in corporate filings, several others linked to individual executives โ€” including Zhang Bowen of PetroChinaโ€™s natural gas distribution arm Kunlun Energy and Yang Hua of China National Offshore Oil Corporation โ€” appear to operate in the dark, and their purpose is not clear. PetroChina and CNOOC did not respond to ICIJโ€™s repeated requests for comment.

Other scandal-tainted Chinese who have used the BVI to do business include Huang Guangyu, once Chinaโ€™s richest man. The ICIJ records show that he and his wife Du Juan set up a maze of at least 31 BVI companies between 2001 and 2008 as they built the largest consumer electronics retail chain in China.

The husband, Huang, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2010 after Chinese courts convicted him of insider trading, bribery and stock price manipulation. Du Juan was convicted of related charges but was released from prison in 2010 after serving a brief time.

While Huang is in prison and many of his assets are frozen, his business empire survives through his offshore network of companies. In 2011, one of his BVI firms, Eagle Vantage Assets Management, made a bid for a retired British aircraft carrier that Huang wanted to turn into a luxury shopping mall (the Brits in the end decided to scrap the ship).

He still owns more than 30 percent of Gome, his electronics retailer, via two companies in the BVI, Shining Crown Holdings and Shine Group.

Offshoreโ€™s future

As concerns grow about the wealth of corporate oligarchs, government officials and their families, some Chinese have braved the governmentโ€™s anger by raising questions about corruption.

A grassroots group, the New Citizens Movement, uses the Internet and small demonstrations to press for greater transparency. โ€œHow can you fight corruption if you donโ€™t even dare to disclose your personal assets?โ€ the groupโ€™s founder, legal advocate and activist Xu Zhiyong, wrote last spring.

The governmentโ€™s response has been swift. It has arrested Xu and detained more than 20 other members of the group, indicting some for โ€œdisturbing public orderโ€ or โ€œillegal assembly,โ€ charges frequently used to silence dissidents.

The government has also cracked down on foreign media that have focused attention on the gap between wealth and poverty in China. After The New York Times and Bloomberg News reported on the onshore assets of Chinaโ€™s princelings, the government blocked their websites and delayed approving visas for their journalists.

After years of inaction, the U.S., the U.K. and international organizations have begun pushing reforms that, they say, would reduce offshore abuses. China has been less aggressive in pressing for changes in the offshore system.

Big loopholes in tax laws have allowed Chinese individuals to operate with relative freedom offshore. They werenโ€™t required to report their foreign holdings.

โ€œChinese policy makers didnโ€™t envision individuals absconding with that much money,โ€ Lee, the Beijing-based corporate lawyer, said.

Now mainland authorities are moving to get a handle on the flow of private wealth offshore. New rules that went into effect Jan. 1 require Chinese to report their overseas assets.

How aggressively China joins global efforts to reshape the offshore system may have a big impact on the current push for reform. Just as China has become an increasingly important player in the global economy, it has also become more important as a supplier of clients to the market for offshore accounts and companies.

A 2013 industry-sponsored poll of 200-plus bankers and other offshore professionals found that โ€œChina-related demandโ€ is the key driver in the offshore marketโ€™s growth. The chief of a BVI offshore services firm said in the survey: โ€œChina is the most important location for client origination for business in the next five years.โ€

Die bezahlten Reisen und Immobilien von Thomas und Beate Porten /GoMoPa

Bernd-Pulchernst

Liebe Leser,

nach vorliegenden Unterlagen wurden รผber zwei Jahrzehnte Reisen von Thomas Porten, IZ, Gesellschafter und Chefredakteur von der Immobilienzeitung durch Immobilienfirmenย  bezahlt. Ebenso von Dr. Rainer Zitelmann, dem “Auschwitz-Experten”.

Anzeigen und Abonnements sowieso in Millionenhรถhe fรผr Thomas Porten und Beate Porten, Wirtschafts-Staatsanwรคltin in Wiesbaden:

Niemand wusste dies ausser Porten und Porten oder ?

Dss Haus von Beate und Thomas Porten in Mainz wurde wohl mithin ebenfalls von Immobilienfirmen bezahlt, ebenfalls Hotelaufenthalte und Urlaubsreisen.

Bis zur Aufklรคrung dieser Korruptionsaffรคre habe ich allen Einnahmden aus Deutschland entsagtย  und wenn dies 100 Jahre dauert !.

Kann das die Gegenseite und ihr korrupter Haufen auch ?

Herzlichst Ihr

Magister Bernd Pulch

PS Wieviel die mutmasslichen Porten-Genossen der GoMoPa erhalten haben kรถnnen Sie im Manager Magazin, der SZ und der Zeit nachlesen.

Documentary – The Pain Project: Bureaucrats

The laws governing illicit drugs, enforced by UN Office of Drugs and Crimes, are unnecessarily blunt and curtail access to legitimate opiates for medical purposes. This segment is part of The Pain Project, a series produced by The International Reporting Program.

For more on The Pain Project series:
Imagine recovering from major surgery or suffering from advanced cancer without any painkillers. That’s the reality for patients in half the countries in the world. But unlike with so many global health problems, this one is not about money or a lack of drugs. Morphine, the gold standard for medical pain treatment, is simple and cheap to make and distribute. So why are so many people left in pain?

The International Reporting Program traveled to Ukraine, Uganda and India to find out, and to document the human toll of this hidden human rights crisis. It turns out a combination of bureaucratic hurdles and the chilling effect of the global war on drugs are largely to blame, leaving humanitarians scrambling to work outside the law โ€” or change the law โ€” to bring relief to suffering patients all over the world.

For more information visit:
http://www.internationalreporting.org…

Unveiled – Consultant for Willbros International Sentenced in Connection with Foreign Bribery Scheme

WASHINGTONโ€”A former consultant for Willbros International, Inc. (Willbros International), a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group, Inc. (Willbros), was sentenced today for his role in a conspiracy to pay more than $6 million in bribes to government officials of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and officials from a Nigerian political party, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge Valerie Parlave of the FBIโ€™s Washington Field Office announced today.

Paul G. Novak, 46, was sentenced today to serve 15 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake, III of the Southern District of Texas. The court took into consideration Novakโ€™s cooperation, and the sentence was consistent with the governmentโ€™s recommendation. In addition to the prison sentence, Novak was ordered to pay a $1 million fine and to serve two years of supervised release following his release from prison. In sentencing Novak, the court took into consideration the assistance Novak provided the government in ongoing investigations.

Novak pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive count of violating the FCPA. Novak admitted that from approximately late 2003 to March 2005, he conspired with others to make a series of corrupt payments totaling more than $6 million to various Nigerian government officials and officials from a Nigerian political party to assist Willbros and its joint venture partner, a construction company based in Mannheim, Germany, in obtaining and retaining the Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS) Project, which was valued at approximately $387 million. The EGGS project was a natural gas pipeline system in the Niger Delta designed to relieve existing pipeline capacity constraints.

According to court records, Novak and his alleged co-conspirators, Kenneth Tillery, Jason Steph, Jim Bob Brownโ€”three employees from Willbrosโ€™ joint venture partnerโ€”and others agreed to make the corrupt payments to, among others, government officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, a senior official in the executive branch of the federal government of Nigeria, and members of a Nigerian political party. Court documents state the bribes were paid to assist in obtaining and retaining the EGGS contract and additional optional scopes of work.

According to information contained in plea documents, to secure the funds for those corrupt payments, Novak and his alleged conspirators caused Willbros West Africa Inc., a subsidiary of Willbros International, to enter into so-called โ€œconsultancy agreementsโ€ with two consulting companies Novak represented in exchange for purportedly legitimate consultancy services. In reality, those consulting companies were used to facilitate the payment of bribes.

In addition to Novak, to date, two Willbros employees have pleaded guilty for their roles in the EGGS bribery scheme, and Willbros has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government:

On May 14, 2008, Willbros Group, Inc. and Willbros International entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government and agreed to pay a $22 million penalty in connection with the companyโ€™s payment of bribes to government officials in Nigeria and Ecuador. On March 30, 2012, the government moved to dismiss the charges following Willbrosโ€™ satisfaction of its obligations under the deferred prosecution agreement, and on April 2, 2012, the court granted the United Statesโ€™ motion.

On September 14, 2006, Jim Bob Brown, a former Willbros executive, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, in connection with his role in making corrupt payments to Nigerian government officials to obtain and retain the EGGS contract and in connection with his role in making corrupt payments in Ecuador. After a reduction for cooperation, Brown was sentenced on January 28, 2010 to 12 months and one day in prison, two years of supervised release, and a $17,500 fine.

On November 5, 2007, Jason Steph, also a former Willbros executive, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA in connection with his role in making corrupt payments to Nigerian government officials to obtain and retain the EGGS contract. After a reduction for cooperation, Steph was sentenced on January 28, 2010 to 15 months in prison, two years of supervised release and a $2,000 fine.

Kenneth Tillery was charged, along with Novak, for his alleged role in the bribery scheme in an indictment unsealed on December 19, 2008. According to the indictment, Tillery was a Willbros International employee and executive from the 1980s through January 2005. From 2002 until January 2005, Tillery served as executive vice president and, later, as president of Willbros International. Tillery remains a fugitive. The charges against Tillery are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by FBI agents who are part of the Washington Field Officeโ€™s dedicated FCPA squad. Significant assistance was provided by the Criminal Divisionโ€™s Office of International Affairs. This case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Laura N. Perkins of the Criminal Divisionโ€™s Fraud Section.

Additional information about the Justice Departmentโ€™s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.