IMF chief Christine Lagarde found guilty of ‘negligence’ over huge payout to business tycoon – but escapes jail.

What was Christine Lagarde accused of?
The 60-year-old former corporate lawyer was accused of wrongdoing on two counts: agreeing to the arbitration and failing to challenge the subsequent €404 million (£340 million) award.

In its verdict, the court of three professional magistrates, six senators and six MPs, found no fault in Ms Lagarde’s decision to launch the arbitration procedure. But it found her guilty of “negligence” in choosing not to appeal the arbitration panel’s ruling.
Telegraph
Statement on Legal Proceedings in France Relating to the Managing Director

Kjell Nilsson-Mäki
http://hem.bredband.net/makiteckningar/Makibilder/Webbplats/Valkommen.html

Dr. iur. Verena Zoppei has provided a fascinating article on the unconventionality of the structures of organized crime today. Criminals want to ‘clean’ their money.  Professionals, particularly in banking and related industries, help criminals and are part of the new networks.  This article details how this comes about.
Understanding the Structure of Organized Crime

Serious and Organised Crime infiltration
Transcrime.it/MORE/

Unveiling the Structure of Unconventional Organized Crime  /  Super-Tree Singapore

George Soros’ The Open Society sponsors research like this on the Russian Prosecutor General’s family.

From high-end hotels in Greece to the shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the investigation reveals the sources of the Prosecutor General’s sons’  fabulous fortunes – while uncovering a trail of crime and cover-ups (that stretches all the way to the Kremlin).

While it is generally thought that the European Union will not take action against member states that violate EU laws and principles, it is heartening to see the European Commission undertake an investigation of possible violations by Poland.

The unprecedented inquiry in response to controversial Polish legislation that puts more power into the hands of the country’s staunchly conservative government.

Announcing the inquiry, Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the commission, the EU’s executive body, said officials in Brussels had an obligation to ensure the rule of law was upheld across the EU, and that they were concerned about the functioning of Poland’s highest court.

“The binding rulings of the constitutional tribunal [Poland’s highest legislative court] are currently not respected, which I believe is a serious matter in any rule of law-dominated state,” he said.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party passed a law last month overhauling the constitutional tribunal, which critics say removes checks on government power.

Although changes to Poland’s constitutional tribunal dominated Wednesday’s 45-minute discussion in Brussels, Timmermans also raised concerns about “freedom and pluralism of the media”.

Last week the government fired managers and board members of Poland’s public broadcasters, after passing a law giving the executive power to appoint the heads of state TV and radio. The Council of Europe, a non-EU organisation that promotes human rights, has described the arrangement as “unacceptable in a genuine democracy”.

In theory, the launch of the European commission’s inquiry could lead to Polandbeing stripped of its voting rights in the EU, but insiders are playing down this possibility.

Neither is Poland likely to be expelled from this year’s Eurovision song contest. A spokesperson for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the annual event, said Poland was not going to be blacklisted, adding that the EBU was “heavily campaigning” against Poland’s media law.

Officials in Brussels are anxious to avoid confrontation with PiS and create division within the EU. “The college [of commissioners] did not decide today to bang Poland’s head,” one source said.

The commission is seeking to take the political heat out of the debate amid bitter recriminations from some Polish government ministers, after criticism from German politicians.

Two senior EU politicians, Martin Schulz, head of the European parliament, and Günther Oettinger, European commissioner for digital economy, who are German, have been strongly critical of PiS.  A  prominent Polish magazine has depicted leading EU politicians, including the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Nazi uniforms.

The commission’s initial assessment is likely to be concluded in March, following a separate report by the Council of Europe’s Venice commission, a body of constitutional experts, which is also examining the workings of Poland’s constitutional tribunal.

Alexis Akwagyiram writes:  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, elected on a pledge to tackle corruption, holds talks with the International Monetary Fund as the country seeks to spend its way out of an economic crisis fuelled by plunging oil prices.

The meeting suggests an acknowledgement of Buhari’s efforts to revive Africa’s largest economy. He was elected in March after a campaign in which he promised to clamp down on the endemic corruption that has left many Nigerians mired in poverty despite the country’s enormous energy wealth.

He then announced a record budget for 2016, forecasting a doubling of the deficit to 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion) and a tripling of capital expenditure intended to help the country adjust to the downturn in oil, which has lost around two-thirds of its value since mid-2014.

It has foreign currency reserves worth around $30 billion, and plans to borrow as much as 900 billion naira abroad to fund the deficit, which is equivalent to 2.16 percent of gross domestic product, Buhari said. Some 984 billion naira would be borrowed at home.

Nigeria relies on crude exports for more than half of state revenues and is Africa’s top oil producer. It is also facing an insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people in the remote northeast and raised concern among potential investors.

Lagarde will also visit neighbouring Cameroon, where she will meet President Paul Biya and his economic team. The government of the central African country that exports coffee, cocoa and oil tabled a 2016 budget of 4,200 billion CFA francs ($6.9 billion) in December.

Cameroon is part of an 8,700-strong task force including troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin that has pledged to destroy Boko Haram, which though based mainly in Nigeria has become a major threat to regional security.

Lagarde will also meet Finance Ministers from the six member countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC).

“The country (Cameroun) and the entire CEMAC region are confronted with the twin shocks of the oil-price slump and a surge in disruptions related to security,” Lagarde said.

Corruption Scandals 2015

FIFA     Soccer’s world-governing body is so entangled in a massive web of corruption that it’s hard to pinpoint where it begins or ends, or even just how much money is involved. In May, after a lengthy U.S.-led investigation, the American Justice Department indicted 14 FIFA associates and officials, both current and former, who the FBI believed to be involved in “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted” corruption. Seven months later, in December, another 16 officials were charged with involvement in bribery and corruption. On top of all that, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Union of European Football Associations President Michel Platini were both given eight year suspensions from soccer activities this month over $2 million paid to Platini by Blatter in 2011. The U.S. investigation was initially intended to figure out whether FIFA officials took bribes to allow Russia and Qatar to host upcoming World Cups. But as evidence mounted, the inquiries expanded into a much more expansive probe, revealing what prosecutors say are years of corrupt practices, including bribery and game-selling, from officials in Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Nigeria

When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took over the presidency in May, it didn’t take him long to announce that he estimated some $150 billion had gone missing in Nigeria over the past ten years. The former military leader vowed he would do his best to find out where that money ended up, and in November he claimed to have traced at least a small fraction of it back to his predecessor’s administration. On Nov. 17, he ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s national security advisor, for dipping his hands into the defense budget and allegedly stealing some $2 billion from the country’s fund to fight Boko Haram, the extremist group terrorizing Nigeria’s northeast. According to Buhari, Dasuki awarded phantom contracts for military supplies, including helicopters, fighter jets, bombs, and ammunition. But the equipment never arrived, and the new Nigerian administration is convinced Dasuki pocketed the money.

Malaysia

In mid 2015,  $700 million of state funds had ended up in Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account — which was not where they were supposed to go. That tied Razak directly to a probe into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a government-owned development company that was supposed to turn Kuala Lumpur into a thriving financial hub. Najib claims the money in his account came from personal donations. But the reports came after the fund had already fallen behind on its payment schedule. Obama claims he raised the question of corruption in a private meeting with Najib, but publicly said only that the government should aim to be “more accountable, more open, more transparent, to root out corruption.”

Honduras and Guatemala

This spring and summer, protests erupted in the Central American countries of Honduras and Guatemala, as angry activists demanded the resignations of the countries’s two presidents. In Guatemala, the outrage was linked to an international probe that discovered how customs duties were lowered for bribes. And in Honduras, the former director of the Honduran Social Security Institute was accused, along with some of his top officials, of awarding $200 million of contracts to phantom companies. Some of that money is allegedly tied to President Juan Hernandez’s political party.

Ghanaian Judges

For two years, investigative journalist and 2015 Foreign Policy Global ThinkerAremeyaw Anas worked on a film based on footage he gathered prowling the halls of Ghanaian courthouses, pretending to be the relative of accused criminals and offering bribes to judges in exchange for shortened prison sentences. Wearing a secret camera, Anas claims to have caught 32 judges accepting offers of money and even livestock. In October, after Anas published his documentary, Ghana suspended seven top judges in what the country’s judicial council labeled a “prima facie case of stated misbehavior against them.” That “misbehavior” was what was documented by Anas, whose journalistic mission is to “name, shame, and jail” corrupt officials. And in this case, he claims he has hundreds of additional hours of footage to further prove the justices’ complicity. In December, 21 of the 32 indicted judges were reportedlyasked to step down.

United Nations General Assembly

According to the prosecutors who filed charges against him in October, John Ashe, former president of the U.N. General Assembly and one-time U.N. ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, knew how to use diplomacy to make a quick buck. The October complaint claims that Ashe took part in a $1 million bribery scheme with a Chinese businessman who wanted to build a multi-billion dollar U.N. conference center in Macau. But that wasn’t the end of his shady deals with Chinese businessmen:  Ashe allegedly pocketed upwards of $800,000 in bribe money to support Chinese business deals on Antigua, then shared some of it with the Antiguan prime minister. And prosecutors say Ashe got a lot more than just the extra pocket money out of all his wheeling and dealing. According to the complaint, his under the table deals helped him pay $40,000 in BMW bills, build a $30,000 basketball court in his private home, collect $54,000 in Rolex watches, and join a vacation club for $69,000 — among other luxuries.