Authoritarian regimes like Russia and China use malign finance—the funding of foreign political parties, candidates, campaigns, well-connected elites, or politically influential groups, often through non-transparent structures designed to obfuscate ties to a nation state or its proxies—to interfere in democracies. Find ASD’s work on malign finance and the threat it poses to democracy on this page.
Interference Matters
Russia Is Still Finding Willing Partners Throughout Europe
Questions Lawmakers Should Ask at the June 19th Hearing on Kleptocracy
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to discuss ways to combat kleptocracy through financial reforms such as beneficial ownership and money laundering. Beneficial ownership is particularly important because kleptocrats an [...]
Josh Rudolph on Beneficial Ownership in The Hill
ASD Fellow for Malign Finance Josh Rudolph argues in The Hill that the U.S. government that beneficial ownership legislation banning anonymous shell companies would help defend America from foreign interference. [...]
Questions Lawmakers Should Ask at the June 20th Hearing on Beneficial Ownership
Today, the Senate Banking Committee will hear outside perspectives on the collection of beneficial ownership information. This hearing is well-timed, as momentum is building in both the House and the Senate to outlaw anonymous shell companies. For e [...]
Italy’s Risky Realignment
Every Italian learns about Marco Polo, a young merchant who left his native Venice in 1271, travelled to China, and returned home twenty-four years later with riches and treasure. Today, Italy’s government is betting that moving closer to Beijing wi [...]
Joshua Kirschenbaum on FATF’s Evaluation of Russia at the NYU School of Law
ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum and GWU's Jennifer DeNardis discuss the recent Financial Action Task Force evaluation of Russia with the Program on Compliance and Enforcement at the NYU School of Law. "Russia in recent years has been the most [...]
Illicit Influence – Part One – A Case Study of the First Czech Russian Bank
Introduction In the spring of 2016, as the Russian-domiciled First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) approached insolvency, staff worked feverishly to erase ledgers, destroy documents, and conceal evidence of the bank’s activity over the previous 9 years. [...]
Foreign Funding Threats to the EU’s 2019 Elections
The European Union fears that foreign interference could mar the European Parliament elections in May 2019, but leaders have thus far failed to address a major vulnerability, namely that foreign money can flow unimpeded into campaigns in a number of [...]
Europe Needs Money Laundering Penalties That Hurt
The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service announced on September 4 that ING Bank, the country’s largest financial institution, had reached a settlement worth the equivalent of $900 million for money laundering violations committed between 20 [...]