Journalist Tom Burgis tracked how dirty money flooded the global economy for his latest book, “Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World.” He says it’s a system that launders stolen billions, emboldens dictators and poisons democracies. And he says this international band of thieves is uniting at an incalculable cost to us all. Burgis spoke to The Daily Beast about his book and the people who wield this money:
In the West, we tend to forget how connected we are in the global economy to the parts of the world where making money can be a deadly business, places like Congo, Kazakhstan and many points in between, where lives are taken in pursuit of fortunes, to protect secrets or to hurt rivals.
But more importantly, their money is power in the rawest sense. In places like Kazakhstan and Congo, where life can be tragically cheap and rulers serve the cause of their own enrichment, oligarchs such as these have power like that of the old imperialists.
They have extended that power into the rich democracies with the help of lawyers, bankers, spin doctors, lobbyists and spies.
We unpack the ‘kleptopia’ we live in with Tom Burgis.
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