Summit for Democracy (S4D) Working Group on Kleptocracy and Illicit Finance: S4D WG Final Report Dialogue II (March 2023)

On February 9, 2023, the Summit for Democracy (S4D) Working Group (WG) on Kleptocracy and Illicit Finance hosted a dialogue on “Investigating and Prosecuting Kleptocrats and Complicit Enablers”. The event expanded on the earlier 2021 WG Dialogue which focused on authoritarian states’ corruption and money laundering as threats to democracy, peace, and security.

[YouTube video of the S4D WG Dialogue 2023 here.]

The S4D Working Group was created in September 2021 by the Anti-Illicit Trade Institute (AITI) at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), George Mason University, as a civil society-driven dialogue to fight corruption and money laundering and to defend democracy against authoritarianism, confront hubs of illicit trade, and safeguard human rights and security.

The focused mission of the WG has been to mobilize energies, ideas, and actions among interested civil society and USG partners to ensure that the fight against kleptocracy and illicit finance remains a high priority within the Summit for Democracy diplomatic initiative and participating governments’ S4D commitments. In recent years, economists have pegged the volume of illicit wealth stashed by kleptocrats at trillions of dollars in offshore centers, shell companies, and reinvested laundered dirty money in G7, EU markets, and popular luxury-living destinations and resorts around the world.*

In 2022-2023, within the framework of the S4D WG, there was consensus by members of the group to complement related work across the S4D Cohorts with more robust law enforcement approaches and technical assistance to fight kleptocracies and their dirty money. S4D WG members aimed to identify ways to align other efforts to address nonconviction forfeiture, beneficial ownership, and information sharing related to high-level corrupt officials and their enablers. Members also wanted to bring attention to the work of civil society leaders on the front lines of fighting kleptocracy including investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and other defenders of integrity.

Members were committed to using the convening power of the S4D WG to optimize engagements with the USG and other governments to ensure that S4D commitments are implemented and technical expertise is leveraged to undertake more cross-border law enforcement cooperation and asset recovery efforts.

The S4D WG closely coordinated with S4D Financial Transparency and Integrity Cohort and other Democracy Cohorts working on Anti-Corruption issues.

Through this report, the S4D WG advances a whole-of-society approach to combating kleptocracy and illicit finance to safeguard democracies, including a number of recommended actions to the USG and S4D community of interest. These include an emphasis on greater cross-border law enforcement cooperation to compel greater action to investigate and prosecute kleptocrats and their enablers, and to confiscate their illicitly-acquired assets and other related dirty money.

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On behalf of the co-Chairs of the?S4D Working Group on Kleptocracy and Illicit Finance?and our recent S4D WG 2023 Dialogue's co-hosts, the?Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), the?Brookings Institution, and the?Coalition for Integrity (C4I):?

Please find?a copy of the?Final?S4D WG Dialogue II 2023 Report: "Investigating and Prosecuting Kleptocrats and Complicit Enablers", with numerous practical recommendations and actions that we believe can also advance public-private partnerships to combat kleptocracy and money laundering, and related considerations in regards to the upcoming Second S4D Summit later this month.

Learn more about the Summit for Democracy diplomatic initiative at:

https://www.state.gov/summit-for-democracy/

S4D Democracy Cohorts and Working Group on Kleptocracy and Illicit Finance:?

https://summit4democracy.org/

And our work at the Anti-Illicit Trade Institute (AITI), under the auspices of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), George Mason University:

https://traccc.gmu.edu/projects/current/anti-illicit-trade-institute/

"Democracy is under siege. As research has demonstrably shown, there is a strong inverse relationship between kleptocracy and democracy and equality, especially as kleptocrats pillage their countries, crippling development and laundering billions of dollars of their illicit wealth to offshore havens every year. Such corruption serves as a threat multiplier, endangering not only our common security, but also economic equity, global anti-poverty efforts, and democracy itself." David M. Luna, Chair, S4D WG Kleptocracy

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David M. Luna is a Senior Fellow for National Security with the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Mr. Luna is also President and CEO of Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC.?A former U.S. diplomat and national security official, Mr. Luna is a globally-recognized strategic thought leader, advocate for security of humanity, and a leading voice internationally on crime convergence, transnational threats, international affairs, geopolitical risks, changing character of war, illicit trade, threat finance, and global illicit economies ("dark side of globalization") that fuel greater insecurity and instability around the world. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE).?Mr. Luna held numerous senior positions with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), including directorships for national security, transnational crime, and anti-corruption and good governance; and advisor to the Secretary’s Coordinator for the Rule of Law. Mr. Luna also served as an Assistant Counsel to the President, Office of the Counsel to the President, The White House; and other positions with the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Senate.

* International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Panama Papers, 2021.