When states fail to hold corrupt actors to account, ordinary citizens pay the price. Corruption sanctions were born from the idea that no one should be above the law, no matter where they are in the world. In a new Working Paper, Dr Anton Moiseienko explores how these tools have evolved and offers recommendations for their more effective and legitimate use.

Here we share the foreword to his paper by the Basel Institute's Andrew Dornbierer, Head of Policy and Research, International Centre for Asset Recovery.

Corruption was on the main programme of the Munich Security Conference on 16–18 February 2024 for the first time.

Have we reached a turning point in the fight against corruption that impacts the environment?

For the first time in its 20-year history, the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC (CoSP10) hosted a series of special events on corruption that impacts the environment. The 25 co-organisers included states, international organisations and non-profit organisations, including the Basel Institute on Governance through our Green Corruption programme.

Andrea Gacki, Director of U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), recently gave an address at a joint event on Combating Green Corruption: Fighting financial crime as a driver of environmental degradation.

“Fighting climate change and the degradation of our planet is hard enough. We cannot allow poor governance and corruption to undermine our hard-fought progress.”

– Ambassador Georg Sparber, Ambassador of Liechtenstein to the United States

Richard Nephew, Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption, U.S. Department of State, recently gave a keynote address at a joint event on Combating Green Corruption: Fighting financial crime as a driver of environmental degradation.

The event at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. on 19 September 2023, was jointly organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, Embassy of Liechtenstein in Washington D.C., U.S. Department of State and the Wilson Center.

A blog by Meraal Hakeem, a law student at the Arizona State University who is undertaking a legal research internship at the Basel Institute on Governance.

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States’ Department of Justice launched “Task Force KleptoCapture” in March 2022 to enhance its capacity to enforce sanctions and target assets suspected of bolstering the Russian regime.