9. Debra LaPrevotte on being an FBI agent, asset recovery, safe havens for cleptocrats & war crimes

Join us this week for an interview on the FBI’s work on asset recovery, which countries are currently the main destinations for money laundering by international cleptocrats and how corruption directly contributes to war crimes and atrocities. Our guest this week is the Debra LaPrevotte. She is a Senior Investigator for The Sentry (https://thesentry.org/). Founded by George Clooney and John Prendergast, the Sentry “follows the dirty money and builds cases focusing on the war criminals most responsible for Africa’s deadliest conflicts and the corrupt transnational networks that profit from them”. Part 1: Asset recovery an FBI Supervisory Special Agent Debra worked for over 20 years as a Supervisory Special Agent on the International Corruption Unit at FBI Headquarters. In the interview she describes her investigations into asset recovery, walking the listener through the process of a typical investigation, the challenges she faced and what it is like to seize more than $1 billion dollars from foreign corrupt officials. And where should returned asset go to? Back to the country from which it was seized and stolen? Or shall there be conditionalities to prevent the money being fed back into a corrupt system? The two discuss the pros and cons of both views. Part 2: Safe havens for money laundering Want to take a guess which country currently is the destination of choice for kleptocrats? Tip is not Switzerland (any more). Debra and Matthew describe which places currently have the reputation to be a money laundering paradise and how this fuels kleptocrats. Part 3: “I have the best retirement job ever – I work for George Clooney and John Prendergast” Debra describes her work for Sentry which aims to disrupt and ultimately dismantle the network of perpetrators, facilitators, and enablers who fund and profit from Africa’s deadliest conflicts. Debra is currently investigating violent kleptocracy in Sudan, South Sudan, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic and Somalia. She focuses on investigating greed that fuels war crimes and atrocities. Interestingly, she argues that most of the conflicts are not ideology-driven but rather fueled by powerful elites seeking to protect their financial assets. Find out more about Debra’s work via: https://thesentry.org/