At a virtual event on Thursday June 10, Congress launched the bipartisan Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy. Helsinki Commission leadership, caucus founders, and a panel of civil society experts in anti-corruption and kleptocracy joined the launch event.

The new caucus will focus on fighting kleptocracy, an authoritarian governance model in which political leaders routinely engage in illicit self-enrichment, maintain power through corrupt patronage networks, exploit rule of law jurisdictions to conceal and protect stolen assets, and use strategic corruption as a tool of foreign policy.

In his opening remarks, U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) congratulated the caucus founders in the U.S. House of Representatives for their leadership and expressed an intention to establish a comparable caucus in the Senate.

“We can act as an independent branch in fighting corruption … giving the executive branch powers that it otherwise could not exercise on its own because of the challenges of diplomacy,” Cardin said. “We need to take advantage of that. This caucus will be the focal point for us in our strategies on how the legislative branch of government can continue to strengthen the tools that are available.”

Caucus Co-Chair and Helsinki Commissioner Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) emphasized the importance of advancing anti-corruption legislation and prioritizing it in U.S. foreign policy through the caucus.

“The fight against corruption really offers the first opportunity in a generation to harmonize our domestic and foreign policy in service of American values,” Fitzpatrick said. “Congress has the ability and the obligation to inspire what they call ‘whole-of-government’ strategies to counter corruption abroad.”

Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Tom Malinowski (NJ-07) praised President Biden’s recent designation of international corruption as a national security priority and announced that the caucus plans to introduce one anti-corruption bill a week over the month of June.

Rep. Malinowski also condemned recent Kremlin activities against anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, including his January arrest and the designation of Navalny’s groups as extremist. Rep. Malinowski vowed to work toward sanctioning all 35 members of a Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation list that designates the most corrupt officials and oligarchs in Russia.

Caucus Co-Chair Rep. John Curtis (UT-03) stressed the impact of corruption on climate change and noted that recent U.S. efforts to reduce carbon emissions have been undermined by foreign corruption, particularly related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Bill Keating (MA-09) discussed how the flow of dark money and the restriction of information are foundational to kleptocrats. He emphasized that the United States needs to leverage partnerships and alliances with other democratic nations to fight corruption.

Panelists at the event included Frederik Obermaier, investigative journalist with Süddeutsche Zeitung and co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective; Nate Sibley, Kleptocracy Initiative research fellow at the Hudson Institute; Elaine Dezenski, senior advisor at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; and Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International United States.

Obermaier praised the recent passage of the Corporate Transparency Act and called for further efforts to promote transparency, such as opening beneficial ownership registries to the public.

“There are countless other Mossack Fonsecas [subject of the Panama Papers investigation] still out there,” Obermaier said. “It is financial service providers, consultancy firms, and law firms helping crooks and criminals, autocrats, and dictators to hide their money.”

Sibley highlighted how Congress has acted historically to call out authoritarian abuses through anti-corruption efforts including the Corporate Transparency Act and the Magnitsky Act, along with upcoming legislation from the caucus.

“I hope that parliamentarians in other countries are listening. But there is only one country that can lead the fight against rising authoritarian kleptocracy,” Sibley said. “This caucus will transform dangerous vulnerabilities into powerful leverage over authoritarian adversaries, create a more level playing field for American businesses operating overseas, and re-engage populations worldwide whose impoverishment at the hands of kleptocrats has made them disillusioned with America’s promise of democracy.”

Dezenski encouraged the caucus to strengthen commitments with allies to combat global corruption together. She also explained the impact of corruption on ordinary Americans—particularly on the middle class—and called for stronger, more creative structures for enforcing anti-corruption national laws and international frameworks.

Kalman discussed future legislative efforts by the caucus, including the Countering Russian and Other Overseas Kleptocracy (CROOK) Act, which would create an anti-corruption action fund; the Foreign Extortion Corruption Act, which would criminalize the demand side of bribery; and the Justice for Victims of Kleptocracy Act (JVOK), which would shine a light on assets stolen from citizens by corrupt foreign officials seized by the United States.

Related Information

• Witness Biographies
• Op-Ed: Corruption Is a National Security Threat. The CROOK Act Is a Smart Way to Fight It
• Press Release: Cardin, Wicker Introduce Bill to Counter Corruption and Promote Good Governance