History Professor Answers Corruption Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

[00:00] This is Tech Support Corruption. [upbeat music] AndyDoodle asks, "How do third world rulers get so rich

[00:14] Well, often those countries are broke and get broker because the dictator is stealing public funds. who was the leader of Congo for three decades.

[00:30] He became immensely wealthy, amazing a fortune where the average daily wage was $1. He took tax money and directed it to his pet projects,

[00:46] He took kickbacks from foreign companies Mobutu was an important ally in the Cold War. So the International Monetary Fund

[01:00] that were supposed to be to improve the country. Instead, that money went straight to his bank accounts. Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain.

[01:16] and that's called dereliction When we look the other way at the weaponization or when we simply give up the idea

[01:32] RockyWired asks, "Be honest, Transparency.org tracks corruption and absence of transparency in countries around the world.

[01:47] South Sudan is the most corrupt followed by Somalia, Venezuela, Yemen, Libya, Eritrea, Sudan, Nicaragua, Some of these countries such as Venezuela are corrupt

[02:03] with criminal gangs, which are used as enforcers to beat up state enemies, also to get bribes from people. and civilian criminal actors.

[02:18] and Yemen are countries where authority has become with their own corruption networks. where the military has been allowed

[02:34] to become active players in corruption schemes. And this is how dictators keep people tied to the system. that the number one job of all politicians

[02:51] Well, autocrats are family men in a way. with family members because family members can keep Mussolini appointed his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano,

[03:08] and his family had their own corruption network we now know. of autocratic corruption. In Turkey, Erdogan's son-in-law runs the biggest

[03:21] which is drones used all over the world. has been conducting private business on behalf At the same time, he is representing the US government

[03:39] In healthy democracies, this would be called a conflict conflicts of interest. and it's something that's very common

[03:55] Dover299 asks, "Where do politicians get so rich from?" between politicians growing rich after they leave office when they're not bound anymore

[04:10] and this is true all around the world, can become very rich after they leave office from book deals, from speaking gigs, that's gonna use their expertise as a former head of state.

[04:27] who amass wealth while they're still in office, ignoring who has amassed $5 billion in only 18 months in office.

[04:39] There have been deals made that involve profits He also promotes personal products with his name on them, And over $640 million estimated has come in

[04:56] from foreign investments to Trump and his family. Rubyzhuman asks, "WTF is a kleptocracy." Klepto being a thief.

[05:10] and thievery have become so institutionalized, so pervasive It's a system where elites use their political positions

[05:24] where private businesses are plundered by the state If they don't, they're subjected to legal harassment, to tax audits, and sometimes even forced to sell at a loss.

[05:39] Ordinary citizens have to pay bribes This was true often in the former communist countries, who had his country living in poverty

[05:54] Many countries that have a lot of oil And this is known as the "resource curse." The curse being that autocrats who have large supplies

[06:08] of oil or natural gas tend to stay in power longer. but oil profits created centers of extreme wealth around oil distribution and production.

[06:23] and others in the state bureaucracy who had to do On the way, corruption becomes endemic. In Gaddafi's Libya, which was a kleptocracy.

[06:39] whether private or in the government amassed Instead of putting the oil profits for public good,

[06:52] most of them were siphoned off into Swiss bank accounts. Now, sometimes if the dictator falls from power as happened to Gaddafi, this can lead to an instability after

[07:06] And so you have a fragmentation L. Rey asks, "How do corrupt dictators hide their money?" In the olden days, dictators used Swiss bank accounts

[07:22] and there was no transparency regarding these bank accounts. Nowadays, offshore finance is the game.

[07:34] you can create a shell corporation Very convenient for the bad actors in the world. Until the 21st century, United Kingdom outposts such

[07:48] for dictators to put their money. had his money in United Kingdom banks offshore. of the main players in offshore finance.

[08:05] and South Dakota are places where many warlords, arms dealers, dictators reportedly stash their funds. "So what corruption is Benjamin Netanyahu

[08:20] Netanyahu faces three separate cases Regular politicians, if they're facing investigation Journalists could start poking around,

[08:35] If you are a wannabe autocrat, though, like Netanyahu, because the point is to get into power and fix the judiciary so your legal problems can go away.

[08:50] when they ran for office includes Vladimir Putin, Silvio Berlusconi three times, Donald Trump three times, and immediately pursued something he called judicial reform,

[09:07] to make his legal problems go away. "Where did Putin get his wealth?" and President Vladimir Putin is rumored

[09:20] How did he do it? On one hand, he plundered public agencies. and natural gas conglomerate.

[09:33] Basically, kleptocrats see public agencies as pots So that's one way Putin did it, The second is by plundering private businesses.

[09:48] has been seized by the state or threatened by the state or sell at a loss.

[10:00] And so again, it's the private sector and the public sector. you create a formidable income stream for a dictator. "Is Trump the most corrupt president?" Without a doubt.

[10:15] just in the 18 months he has been in office. Donors have been given contracts for businesses, He promotes personal goods, profits

[10:30] to which go toward the companies owned by his family Trump has also pardoned financial criminals as well ThePOORmansTHINKINGMAN on Quora asks,

[10:44] Here we have the concept of authoritarian bargains. Could be media elites, financial elites, business elites. They make money in return for absolute loyalty.

[10:59] Competition is gamed in their favor. Over time, this results in what's called a "mafia state," to the dictator become immensely wealthy

[11:13] In Putin's Russia, for example, there's the dictator, who become immensely wealthy And this is how the dictator keeps them tied to him.

[11:29] even if you're immensely wealthy against a dictator. Corruption isn't only about finances. The dictator knows your secrets.

[11:43] And the dictator, especially if he comes from keeps information on those oligarchs And so this too is part of the authoritarian bargain.

[11:57] It's not just profit, but it's keeping each other's secrets. wya42wallabyway asks, "Hmm, I wonder why corrupt leaders If you wanna know if someone is trying to be an autocrat,

[12:14] Do they derive them as fake news? Do they say they're corrupt, not to be trusted? Usually. or wannabe autocrats usually have secrets to hide

[12:27] Autocrats are afraid And so autocrats try to silence, That is a very dangerous profession.

[12:41] damndirtyape asks, "Why do some governments become corrupt? that make some governments more prone to corruption?" democracies, autocracies.

[12:53] where there's a leader and a political system of self-preservation. This could be in Turkey

[13:08] and judges and watchdogs. where Orban stopped an EU investigation So it's not just in third world countries.

[13:23] Corruption could be anywhere if the conditions are right. PGadapaBooks asks, "Can democracy survive corruption?" in which things that used to be considered illegal

[13:37] stealing from the public, sexual abuse, When that happens and institutions get retooled to protect immoral people, then democracy suffers.

[13:52] Now, sometimes sexual assaults can be a prompt That happened in Italy when Berlusconi, was actually forced to step down.

[14:05] He was investigated and convicted not only for bribery Around the world, foreign governments have been prosecuting and appear in the Epstein files.

[14:19] That has yet to happen in the United States. Ze_Germans31B asks, "Denying elections, hmm. Many autocrats commit electoral fraud.

[14:33] or you refuse to have the votes counted. But election denial is something under the bucket of corruption.

[14:48] conspiring to lie to the public. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election Later, he tried to stage a coup

[15:02] He now sits convicted with 27 years sentence. Tygor asks, "How does a country uncorrupt itself?"

[15:14] A country can uncorrupt itself by restoring regulations They can restore professional ethics requirements and corporations, and they can reign in the leader

[15:32] We're seeing this in Hungary where Peter Magyar, the successor of Viktor Orban, is restoring regulations that Orban discarded in order to restore transparency

[15:46] So those are all the questions for today. Thanks for watching. I