Le club des incorruptibles



The incorruptible club

LE MONDE | 03.21.09 | 14h07 • Updated 03.21.09 | 14h07

They belong to the same family of professional pests, this handful of men and women whose sole aim is to clean up the world’s democracies, leaving no stone unturned in their hunt to track down corruption. They have another thing in common: they are members of the Network, an exclusive club set up by former judge Eva Joly with the active support of Norway. This little group of some twenty members meets ever so discreetly twice a year. In February, they gathered in Livingstone, Zambia, a stone’s throw from Victoria Falls. They allowed Le Monde to attend, just this once.

They have their own heroes, the new martyrs in the battle against corruption. First there is 48-year-old Nuhu Ribadu, former head of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, demoted and then target of an assassination attempt. His only offense is to have zealously investigated his country’s corrupt leaders.

And now there is Manuel Garrido, the jovial, unrelenting Argentine attorney general, five years head of the Office of Administrative Investigations, who was driven to a spectacular resignation on March 12. His crime? Investigating corruption in Argentina, and in particular the financing for President Cristina Kirchner’s election campaign. The man is passionate and principled, and his district attorney, Esteban Righi, was a bit too keen to block his investigations.

Both men were in Zambia. A sumptuous hotel, with zebras and monkeys on the lawn, and an exquisite pool. The tab, complete with first-class tickets, was picked up by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), a body that reports directly to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"WE’VE LOST THE BATTLE AGAINST POWER AND GREED ..."

So much for the décor. Because these investigators from all over the world – Bangladesh, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Greece, England, Kenya – spend most of their time telling their tales of misfortune and clashes with the powerful. Cases are settled with the snap of a finger in a bid to speed up the international mutual judicial assistance procedures. They talk about dirty money, secret financial channels and kickbacks. Some of them are here for the first time. They stand up, make their introductions and relate their exploits.

"Hello, I’m an attorney in Costa Rica. We have brought down two former presidents ...” says Juan Carlos Cubillo. Over to Fabio de Pasquale, attorney in Milan. His target is none other than Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister. No easy task. "Whenever Fabio gets a bit too close to him, Berlusconi changes the laws in his favor,” bemoans Helen Garlick, former British head of the investigation into the astronomical kickbacks paid by British aerospace company BAE. You have to be co-opted to enter this select circle, open only to dedicated anticorruption hardliners. No French members to be seen. Is it a sign?

“It’s a battle we cannot win. We’ve lost against power and greed, but it’s a fight worth fighting,” says Eva Joly, who knows exactly what she’s talking about, even though she did manage to bounce back from the Elf affair in France, which left her on her knees. Nonetheless, the case carved her out a fine reputation in the land of the incorruptible. “Elf was a symbol for many of us,” says Richard Findl, a German attorney investigating the Siemens affair.

A symbol, yes, but what about progress? Corruption keeps gaining ground in western economies and rotting developing countries. It’s the same story everywhere: the authorities protect themselves on the pretext of seeking to safeguard the interests of their national companies. Investigations are held up, if not completely blocked. The 1997 OECD convention intended to outlaw all acts of corruption is systematically sidestepped by means of tax havens and offshore accounts. Anticorruption investigators inevitably find themselves isolated, in an impossible and often dangerous position. Examples?

In England, when Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, wanted to put an end to the investigation into the kickbacks paid by BAE, the courts had to contradict him. In Germany, Siemens compromised, preferring to pay over one billion euros in compensation to close the legal investigation into the kickbacks paid abroad. France has tightened its official secrecy. This lethal weapon in the government’s hands has been wielded to block the investigation into the Taiwan frigates, to name but one. There is even talk of France getting rid of committing magistrates. In South Africa, the elite unit that tracked financial crime was quite simply disbanded. Now you have to be virtually suicidal to want to investigate in that area.

"I WAS SHOT AT, BUT LUCKILY MY CAR WAS ARMORED ..."

Nuhu Ribadu would have liked to have continued his work in Nigeria. He is stubborn and tenacious, sure of himself. In 2003, this high-ranking police officer headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. He took on the country’s big fish. In forty years of oil operations, nearly 320 billion euros had been stolen or wasted. “I went after everyone,” says Nuhu Ribadu, “the President’s daughter, the Vice President, senators, governors. I filed 170 corruption cases totaling over four billion euros. But then a new government came into power …”

And the trouble started. In December 2007, he was “removed” from his position. He was accused of concealing assets in Dubai. “They launched a smear campaign, but they didn’t have a shred of evidence. And, most importantly, I was too popular.” In Nigeria, he became an icon. What could they do to get rid of him? In 2008, he was the target of an assassination attempt. “I was shot at, in the provinces, but luckily my car was armored …” That’s when the Network stepped in for its member Nuhu Ribadu. Officially, Norway had nothing to do with it. Yet it was Norad that extricated the Nigerian from his country to find him a job as a researcher and put him partly on the payroll at Oxford University in England. “It’s a solitary battle. People like Eva Joly know that by heart,” explained Nuhu Ribadu. “Norway helped me get out of the country.”

It’s part of the Network’s service. If one of its members gets into trouble, Norway uses its tact and massive financial reserves to provide physical and moral support. Even if it ends up helping a policeman in distress become a shrewd politician. Since Nuhu Ribadu today dreams of one thing: winning the next elections in Nigeria in 2011. “I’ve become a politician despite myself,” he says. “They left me no choice. I have a mission, which I have to take up. I’ll return to Nigeria to stand at the next elections. I’m a fighter and, still today, the powerful are embezzling money meant for the country’s development.” He is still a member of the Network, where he tells his tale to his colleagues. Whatever makes you feel better.

"I CAN’T GO INTO THE PRIVATE SECTOR. IT’S FULL OF ALL THE CORRUPT PEOPLE I INVESTIGATED …”

That’s another advantage of this highly select club. The benign nod, the spirit of empathy. Manuel Garrido will need it, even though he hasn’t been physically threatened. His digging was more insidious. “I’ll probably work for an NGO. I can’t go into the private sector. It’s full of all the corrupt people I investigated!” he says of Buenos Aires. “We’ll fix him up with a new job. His material situation is not at risk,” says Eva Joly. “He refused to bow down. That’s unacceptable in Argentina. Yet would he have had the courage to resign if the Network hadn’t given him guarantees for the future?”

Forty-year-old Manuel Garrido with the resounding laugh was the head of the office of financial crime investigations in the Argentine administration for five years. It was a dream job: 70 investigators, 60 investigations underway, the constitutional assurance of not being dismissed at the first sign of rain … And a vast playing field: Argentina is ranked 109th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. He quickly came into contact with the great classics of his profession. “To begin with, I was offered bribes. I was furious. I concentrated on the most important thing: finding the proof.”

He worked hard, opening investigations and never shying from crossing swords with the authorities. He managed to prove that the government was fiddling the poverty statistics and he secured the resignation of an economy minister, central bank head, and the commander of the army. “We are not heroes,” he intimates, “We don’t need to be. Unfortunately, all that goes to show is the weakness of the institutions.”

It was smooth going to begin with, even though there were few court convictions. “Impunity,” he admits, “is the real problem in Argentina …” But there inevitably comes a time when you brush up too close against the powerful. When you interfere with interests in high places. “They created us,” explains Manuel Garrido, “But the day I began investigating them was the day the problems started.” The ‘them’ in question is the Kirchner couple. Nestor Kirchner, Argentine President from 2003 to 2007, and his wife Cristina Kirchner who succeeded him. The President’s brother was the target of a first investigation.

Then it was Kirchner’s turn to be accused of forming an “illegal association” with his Planning Minister, Julio de Vido, senior civil servants and businessmen to commit embezzlement and receive bribes.

The investigations targeted oil contracts, the Swedish construction firm Skanska and the “suitcase scandal” where a businessman tried to smuggle in 800,000 dollars from Venezuela, seized by customs in August 2007. The money was allegedly intended for Cristina Kirchner’s presidential campaign. This, in due course, annoyed the Argentine attorney general who ended up tying his subordinate’s investigative hands. Garrido ranted on television and complained to Congress, but to no avail. On March 12, a weary Garrido resigned. Another head will take his place, and will suffer the same ordeal.

Take 51-year-old Italian attorney Fabio de Pasquale who lives in Milan. He is the modern-day judicial reincarnation of Sisyphus, who doggedly pushed his boulder to the top of the hill only to watch it tumble back down the slope. And so he started over again, and again …

Fabio de Pasquale’s boulder is called Silvio Berlusconi, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. He chases him, gets him in his sights, but never catches him. Attorney Pasquale is a cautious man. You have to be in this job. He felt a sense of satisfaction when, on February 17, the Milan court sentenced British lawyer David Mills to four and a half years in prison for giving false evidence in Berlusconi’s favor. Berlusconi was accused of giving Mills 600,000 dollars in return for falsely testifying in his favor. The court case against Berlusconi was adjourned in 2008 following the introduction of a law granting Il Cavaliere immunity from prosecution for his entire term of office.

"At the time, even the radical parties supported us …"

Not entirely satisfying, then, that conviction. Fabio de Pasquale will make do with it. At the Network, he is appreciated for his perseverance. He likes the exchanges of points of view. “It’s totally informal. We discuss actual cases. We all have the same problems,” he says. Like his colleagues, he tells the tale of his “solitary” battle. His name first came to the fore at the height of Operation Clean Hands, when he handled the most famous cases. The public was behind him. “We were unstoppable at the time. Even the radical parties supported us, which I wasn’t about to boast about. And then the tide turned …”

Next he was to take on the Mediaset empire, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, for a myriad of kickbacks. Although Berlusconi had been convicted a number of times, he was always acquitted on appeal or protected by the statute of limitations. That’s enough to dampen any investigator’s ardor. Not that Fabio de Pasquale will say much about it. He always plays his cards close to his chest. Such is the prerogative of experienced attorneys, the ones who pass on wisdom and tips to the younger generations.

Like Yara Soto who was 28 years old when she uncovered what was to become the biggest political and financial scandal Costa Rica had ever seen. “We couldn’t even imagine the repercussions of such a storm,” remembers Soto. “In 2004, we stumbled upon the fact that the President of the Social Security Bureau had had a house built for 650,000 euros. That’s quite a sum in these parts. The money came from a Finnish company, which had signed over 35 million euros worth of contracts with the government …”

"We lost our innocence with that scandal ..."

The rest reads like a spy novel. Like the plane ticket Yara Soto’s superior paid out of his own pocket so she could see the secret accounts in Panama. And the photos of the registers taken surreptitiously because a bank employee baulked at the idea. “I was snapping photos like James Bond,” she says. “That’s where we found the Alcatel payments. We lost our innocence with that scandal …” Two former Costa Rican presidents admitted to having received hundreds of thousands of euros in kickbacks from Alcatel in return for government contracts.

Yara Soto left Costa Rica for Geneva, where she is an anticorruption advisor, and Juan Carlos Cubillo took over. Ever on the offensive. “We try to keep a low profile, to avoid drawing too much attention,” he explains. “It’s the only way to wheedle into the depths of the corridors of power and keep our backs covered.” Sometimes, he gets jumpy when he reads in the papers about the unenviable fate of some of his colleagues in Latin America. What if he were to go too far? He always checks for bugs and constantly watches his back. Yet he still manages to live normally. “Being in the Network, I’ve been able to talk to Nuhu Ribadu and my Nicaraguan colleague, who have been through much more than I have. It puts things into perspective for me. I come out of our meetings feeling full of beans …”

Network member William J. Downer would have liked to have soaked up some of these positive vibes. But the South African administration wouldn’t let him to go to Zambia. They wouldn’t want him blabbing. The thing is the general elections are coming up in South Africa on April 22 and Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ANC, is the clear favorite for President of the Republic. The same Zuma that attorney William J. Downer is doggedly investigating, building evidence of his being bribed by French arms group Thales. The Network may well have to come to his assistance soon. Another incorruptible in danger.

……………………………………………………………..

The Network – an ultra-private network financed by Norway

LE MONDE | 03.21.09 | 14h07

400,000 euros. That’s the annual cost to Norway of the Network, this ultra-private network of investigators specialized in fighting corruption. That’s a mere drop in the ocean compared with this Scandinavian country’s immense financial reserves. And it barely scratches the surface of the sums generated annually by corruption: tens of billions of euros … and growing.

“We are not a charity,” states diplomat Fritdjov Thorkildsen, Network Project Manager. “Norway has been confronted with corruption problems due to its oil wealth. We felt we should network the different countries’ anticorruption capabilities.”

In 2005, Eva Joly, back in her native country, decided to use her name to help an emblematic cause: the battle against corruption. She secured the support of the foreign affairs ministry and, within a few months, had set up a network of investigators she had come across on her travels. “You have to meet two basic criteria to be part of the Network,” says Thorkildsen, “Corruption in the country of origin and a high level of professionalism.”

An intranet service will soon be set to link up the network members. It’s not to bypass international procedures, but to support these investigators who are inevitably confronted with powerful interests. “I want them to be brave and modest. They have a superhuman task,” points out Eva Joly, currently standing for the Greens in the European elections. “The investigators in the developing countries are often young. I started when I was 50! I had already experienced solitude and problems finding good advice. That’s what we try to give them.”

There are a lot of would-be members, but few get in. The Network does not want to create too formal a structure. As Eva Joly puts it, “We don’t want to become a kind of social club.” Norway uses its financial and diplomatic resources to help the members of the Network. It has assisted an investigator in Nicaragua, as it helped Nuhu Ribadu in Nigeria. Softly, softly, to avoid ruffling any official feathers. In another example, Network members have made the journey to attend hostile hearings. The former judge knows all about how lives get destroyed by unwinnable causes. “It’s checkmate every time, on a civil servant’s wage! These are lives of suffering. We don’t mean to give lessons, just to be facilitators …”

THE START OF SOMETHING

A number of African countries are represented in the Network. Alone, they can do nothing against this scourge. Political will is often all talk and no action, and the industrialized countries blithely keep dipping into the least developed countries’ natural resources. “The players are in Europe, the money is in Europe,” believes Kenyan judge Aaron Ringera. “These corruptors come to Africa to compromise our leaders. And the money from the corruption then goes to Europe. We need to repatriate these fraudulent funds.”

Some put the case for the creation of an international body to hunt down these financial crimes. “We need an international court,” says Maxwell Nkole of the Zambian anticorruption task force. “Common law can’t do anything.”

The Network cannot and does not seek to provide be-all-and-end-all solutions, and no one can expect a miracle from this type of initiative. Yet it is already the start of something, and the battle is worth fighting. As the association Transparency International puts it, "Corruption in poor countries can be a question of life or death when it affects hospitals or water and food supplies.”

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