THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SPECIAL
CRIMEBUSTERS Corruption fighters form closeknit club………..BOB DAVIS
International fraternity of investigators and prosecutors gather regularly to compare notes and boost morale
The Corruption Hunter Network sounds like a band of comic-book superheroes. But there’s nothing comic about the fraternity of in- vestigators and prosecutors gathered here for a two-day meeting.
One is investigating the Prime Minister of Italy on allegations of tax fraud. Another is an appeal away from potentially jailing a former president of Costa Rica in an embezzlement case. A third convicted a top aide to South Af- rica’s President on corruption.
It is a stressful and often lonely job. The group’s newest mem- ber, Ghulam Rahman, a reserved Bangladeshi, says he was stunned when his country’s President decided to promote him last year from energy regula- tor to head of the nation’s anti- corruption commission. “When I retire from this job, I will have no friends,“ he sighs. “You can’t do a favour for anyone.“
The Corruption Hunter Net- work was born in 2005 when Eva Joly–a former French magis- trate whose 1990s bribery inves- tigation of state-owned oil com- pany Elf Aquitaine targeted French politicians and convicted Elf executives–decided investi- gators and prosecutors needed a group to bolster morale. She convinced the Norwegian Agen- cy for Development Coopera- tion, or Norad, to contribute about $300,000 (around Rs1.4 crore today) annually so corrup- tion fighters could meet twice a year in five-star hotels without their usual retinue of body- guards.
While many international or- ganizations target corruption, the low-profile Corruption Hunt- er Network is unusual in its in- formality and its loyalty, say members and World Bank offi- cials. New recruits–ranging from high-profile investigators to greener officials in developing countries who seem to need help–are chosen by Norad with- out approval from other govern- ments. A member fired at home remains part of the club, which helps them resettle outside their country if necessary.
The meetings are part re- union, part group therapy and part strategy sessions on how to build cases. On the first day, members report on anticorrup- tion battles; the second day in- cludes presentations from out- side advisers. But the real busi- ness of the network takes place during the less formal chats at dinners and coffee breaks–and at late-night drinking bouts, members say.
Costa Rican prosecutor Juan Carlos Cubillo says he has leaned on his pals in the network for support over the past few years as he was pursuing a brib- ery case against his country’s for- mer president, Rafael Calderón.
“I needed fuerza (strength) and calmness to deal with this case,“ Cubillo says during the group’s June meeting at Berlin’s Albion Hotel. (Calderón, who has denied wrongdoing, was jailed, then freed, and is now ap- pealing his conviction.)
The network was formed at a time when combating corrup- tion had become an internation- al priority. Emboldened, mem- bers–from around 15 countries at the time–brought tough cas- es. But the more they focused on leading politicians, the more turbulence they faced.
In Nigeria, network member Nuhu Ribadu was dismissed as chairman of the economic and financial crimes commission in 2008 after he had successfully prosecuted his boss–Nigeria’s police inspector general–for corruption and then locked horns with the governor of an oil-rich state over corruption al- legations. Ribadu says he fled Ni- geria after an assassin tried to put a bullet in his back.
The World Bank, with Norad’s backing, gave the Center for Global Development in Wash- ington a grant to pay Ribadu a $100,000 salary as a visiting fel- low, World Bank and network of- ficials say. Norad declined com- ment. He became a leading critic of the Nigerian regime. Then Ni- gerian politics changed and Goodluck Jonathan became President this year, pledging to be tough on corruption. He met Ribadu in Washington and now Ribadu is considering joining his administration.
In January 2009, the network met in Livingston, Zambia, to show support for Maxwell Nkole, who in 2007 won a $46 million judgement in London against former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba for looting the country.
Such gatherings were sup- posed to “give strength to mem- bers“, says Fridjtov Thorkildsen, Norad’s project director for the network. “If something happens to a member, it would be pub- lished in 15 countries“ where members have ties to the press.
That effort failed. Nkole was fired in August 2009 after he ap- pealed a different case that cleared Chiluba of criminal charges–an appeal the Zambian government scrapped– and left for a research slot at the Univer- sity of Cardiff.
The network “needs to do more than have meetings in Af- rica“, says Nkole, who says the group needs to devise new strat- egies to attack corruption. He has applied for a World Bank grant to examine how the Inter- national Criminal Court in the Hague could target corruption as a crime against humanity.
Spokesmen for Zambia’s po- lice, anticorruption agency and foreign ministry declined to comment on Nkole or the case.
By April 2009, a dozen prose- cutors internationally–not all in the network–had been fired, quit under pressure or forced to leave their countries, and two had been murdered during the proceeding year, according to a network count. Meeting a month later, at a session in Paris, net- work members debated whether to disband. They decided to ex- pand instead by inviting new prosecutors to join.
Some members want the net- work to take on tougher jobs and become a global spokesman for prosecutors. “The network must assume more responsibility for the public debate,“ says Manuel Garrido, a network member who quit last year as head of Argen- tina’s anti-corruption office after a run-in with top economic offi- cials there. But that’s unlikely to occur, say others in the group, who argue the network needs to act behind the scenes to remain effective. At the group’s meeting in Berlin, new member Alexius Nampota of Malawi immediately struck up a rapport with his swashbuckling compatriots. He is investigating a former presi- dent for allegedly taking bribes.
Rahman of Bangladesh is con- sidered more of a novice. Two of the network’s most experienced members–South African prose- cutor Billy Downer and Helen Garlick, formerly of Britain’s Se- rious Fraud Office, tell him war stories at dinner.
The network now is trying to expand further by recruiting from Brazil and India.