Kleptocracy Play

[Algernon Alcala]

DC. Circuit rejects false light and emotional distress claims against a director and a playwright; the play employed dramatic devices underscoring its fictional character so that no reasonable audience member would understand it to communicate that the plaintiff was a prostitute or murderer.

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The play, which had its world premiere earlier this year at a theater in the U.S. capital, was dark and lurid: It told a story of how the Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky hustled for business before the Soviet collapse, ruthlessly climbed to fabulous wealth in the following decade, and ended up imprisoned for 10 years after clashing with President Vladimir Putin.

Written by Kenneth Lin and directed by Jacquelyn Gay, Kleptocracy dramatized the adult life of Khodorkovsky, who assembled a massively profitable oil company, Yukos, and then saw it dismantled and absorbed by a state energy giant as he was prosecuted on charges he dismissed as politically motivated Kremlin revenge.

The play, The Washington Post said in its January 2019 review, was "stark but emotionally colorless."

A perhaps harsher review came in a lawsuit filed by Khodorkovsky's wife, Inna Khodorkovskaya: It was a "highly inaccurate and [offensive] play that sacrifices the truth to support the Kremlin's agenda" and "an integral part of the efforts of the Russian government to malign Mr. Khodorkovsky," the suit filed in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., said.

Khodorkovskaya has sued Lin and Gay for libel, contending that the production depicts her as a "prostitute and a murderer."

"This action is brought to restore Ms. Khodorkovskaya's good name and expose the false and malicious campaign being conducted by the Russian government and the Defendants," said the complaint. It was filed in March, less than a month after the play ended its run at Arena Stage.

A lawyer for Lin and Gay, Barbara Wahl, declined to comment on the action. Gay did not respond to multiple voice mails. Lin, whose previous credits include writing for the U.S. political thriller House Of Cards and who has described the work as "a fictional play based on historic events," also declined comment, through his lawyer.

In a motion asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, Wahl denied that the play depicted Khodorkovskaya as a prostitute and a murderer, and asserted that Khodorkovsky himself was trying to use the lawsuit as a way to publicize his opposition to Putin.

"The Complaint seems to be a further effort by Mr. Khodorkovsky to make a public statement about the evil of President Putin and Mr. Khodorkovsky's brutal and unfair treatment using a new weapon -- the depiction of his wife in a theatrical production," she wrote.

"Moreover, as the Play is a work of fiction, which is clearly shown by not only its tagline but also by the context and content of the work itself, the First Amendment allows breathing room for the dramatization of the events and characters depicted," she wrote.

Mike Eckel is a senior correspondent reporting on political and economic developments in Russia, Ukraine, and around the former Soviet Union, as well as news involving cybercrime and espionage. He's reported on the ground on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the wars in Chechnya and Georgia, and the 2004 Beslan hostage crisis, as well as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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The advisory highlights financial red flag indicators to assist financial institutions in preventing, detecting, and reporting suspicious transactions associated with kleptocracy and foreign public corruption. For purposes of suspicious activity reporting, financial institutions should consider the relevant facts and circumstances of each transaction, in keeping with their risk-based approach to compliance.

Additionally, the U.S. Department of the Treasury last month launched the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program, which offers rewards payments for information leading to seizure, restraint, or forfeiture of assets linked to foreign government corruption, including the Government of the Russian Federation. More information on eligibility for rewards payments and on submission of relevant information to the U.S. government can be found here. Those individuals with information are encouraged to contact Kleptocra...@Treasury.gov or call +1 202-622-2050.

The US anti-kleptocracy initiative, started under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama has been a signature effort to stop kleptocrats from fleecing their people. The program prosecutes high-level foreign official corruption and seizes ill-begotten proceeds located in the United States.

The play follows the penniless-turned-billionaire oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who became the richest man in Russia as the head of Yukos Oil. As Khodorkovsky tries to guide his company into global markets, a young Vladimir Putin becomes the president of Russia and starts to embark on his own climb to power.

Determined to fight Putin even from his prison cell, Khodorkovsky decides to take advantage of a loophole in the law that states that a member of the Russian Congress cannot be imprisoned. While running for his Duma seat, Khodorkovsky becomes a symbol of hope and reform for the Russian people, making Putin even more determined to destroy him.

They discuss the fight against kleptocracy, how Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has energised governments in their efforts to combat modern kleptocracy, and lessons from the response to Russia's war in Ukraine.

The views or statements expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by RUSI employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of RUSI.

As an independent institution, we produce evidence-based research, publications and events on defence, security and international affairs to help build a safer UK and a more secure, equitable and stable world.

Transnational kleptocracy is a global challenge; it is not limited to Russia. China is playing an under-appreciated role in global kleptocratic networks, including in Africa. An effective response must tackle this pervasive, complex challenge at a systemic level. Until countries committed to the rule of law act collaboratively to tackle this challenge, kleptocratic mutual support networks will continue to adapt and elude the measures taken against them.

Initially, such inflows of foreign investment were seen as the inevitable consequence of an integrated global financial system. But illegal money flows soon brought a new set of problems to these host countries. Skyrocketing real estate prices have forced working- and middle-class residents out of cities like London, where scores of buildings purchased by kleptocrats for eye-watering sums stand empty. Investigative journalists are often driven to self-censor or drop stories thanks to the weaponization of libel laws by corrupt figures.

Further, EU institutions are moving ahead with a new anti-money laundering package that would establish an EU-wide anti-money laundering authority (AMLA) with wide coordination powers. The anti-corruption directive presented last year by the EU Commission to the European Council and Parliament also strengthens the framework to fight against kleptocratic inroads by criminalizing additional offenses and harmonizing penalties across the EU.

EU members and their partners should devise a multilevel response capable of grappling with these challenges. Ongoing anti-kleptocracy efforts should be deepened and expanded to all European nations, including a full ban on golden passports; strict limits on investment visas; an end to banking anonymity for major cash transactions, particularly in sensitive sectors such as real estate; and compliance with standards for transparency of corporate ownership. AMLA should be empowered to conduct investigations on its own without needing to go through national authorities if those remain impotent or uncooperative.

Finally, as the EU looks to adapt its legal framework to better fight corruption, it should adopt an EU-wide legal definition of strategic corruption, transnational kleptocracy, and their predicate crimes, following the model of Italian anti-mafia legislation. This would represent an important first step in combatting a phenomenon that has so far proven nebulous and difficult to pin down in law: Kleptocrats rarely steal in Europe, but they use their European base to hide stolen money.

Thibault Muzergues and Eguiar Lizundia are senior advisors at the International Republican Institute, and authors of the new IRI report Fighting Strategic Corruption and Transnational Kleptocracy in Europe: Lessons Learned from Selected Cases.

The report presents commonalities and characteristics of enablers revealed through previous reporting from The Sentry, such as their ability to target countries with vast unexploited wealth, weak government structures, underlying corrupt practices, and conflict.

The US currently plays a significant negative role in facilitating the flow of illicit finance and the stashing of dirty money. To protect national security and effectively combat global corruption, as outlined in the 2021 US Strategy on Countering Corruption, greater attention needs to be paid by the US to the roles and activities of enablers.

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