The Typology of Financial Scandals
IX. The Shadowy World of International Finance
X. Maritime Piracy
XI. The Author
XII. About "After the Rain"
Slush Funds
According to David McClintick ("Swordfish: A True Story of Ambition,
Savagery, and Betrayal"), in the late 1980's, the FBI and DEA set up
dummy corporations to deal in drugs. They funneled into these
corporate fronts money from drug-related asset seizures.
The idea was to infiltrate global crime networks but a lot of the
money in "Operation Swordfish" may have ended up in the wrong
pockets. Government agents and sheriffs got mysteriously and
filthily rich and the whole sorry affair was wound down. The GAO
reported more than $3.6 billion missing. This bit of history gave
rise to at least one blockbuster with Oscar-winner Halle Berry.
Alas, slush funds are much less glamorous in reality. They usually
involve grubby politicians, pawky bankers, and philistine
businessmen - rather than glamorous hackers and James Bondean secret
agents.
The Kazakh prime minister, Imanghaliy Tasmaghambetov, freely
admitted on April 4 to his country's rubber-stamp parliament the
existence of a $1 billion slush fund. The money was apparently
skimmed off the proceeds of the opaque sale of the Tengiz oilfield.
Remitting it to Kazakhstan - he expostulated with a poker face -
would have fostered inflation.
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