A daily scrapbook of stories from major news media on corruption, bribery and financial crimes
Money trail: Tuesday 9 April
ALBANY, U.S.A. - The governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, made the case for bulking up the state's corruption laws and strengthening its electoral system, pointing to a pair of high-profile scandals in the state legislature as an "opportunity" for change, USA Today reports. In a radio interview, Cuomo, New York's former attorney general, said he believes federal corruption laws are stronger than those on the state level, making it difficult for district attorneys and state officials to ferret out political wrongdoing, the newspaper said.
BERLIN – Former German president Christian Wulff has rejected an offer from prosecutors to dismiss corruption allegations against him in exchange for a fine, and vowed to fight on to clear his name in court, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports. It is alleged Wulff received favours from rich friends, including luxury hotel stays from film producer David Groenewold, whom he helped by lobbying for cinema project grants, the broadcaster said. The case against Wulff centres on payments Groenewold made at three expensive hotels in Munich and the northern German island of Sylt in 2007 and 2008, Deutsche Welle added.
TORONTO, Canada - A C$525,000 ($517,000) “bribe” for a Russian police officer allegedly came from an open safe full of cash in the Moscow offices of Toronto billionaire Alex Shnaider’s company in July 2006, a former Russian oil executive told court on Monday, The Globe and Mail reports. Michael Shtaif, who now lives in Canada, and Shnaider are opponents in a civil trial over a joint venture they set up in 2006 to invest in underdeveloped oil properties in Russia – a venture that faltered amid tangled allegations of fraud and bribery, the newspaper said.
MOSCOW - The Kremlin’s anti-corruption crusade seems to be flagging, with the number of graft cases in decline and top kleptocrats unaffected, experts and legislators said, citing new statistics from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports. Only 6,576 cases were opened against alleged Russian bribe takers last year, 371 fewer than in 2011, according to prosecutors’ data, available on the newly launched website Crimestat.ru, the news agency said.
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