The recent events in North Africa and the Middle East show once again that every time a dictator falls from power, governments, politicians and banks across the world announce that his, his family’s and follower’s assets in foreign countries will be frozen and later returned to the new, legitimate government.
But the fact of the matter, according to this new report by the research company MyPrivateBanking, is that these announcements have only been paying lip service to the public demands for amends to be made. Only a small fraction, of 5% of the stolen assets, is frozen and after often tortuous legal proceedings only about half of that is repatriated.
For the report MyPrivateBanking Research analyzed what became of the assets of the 25 most notorious dictators/corrupt politicians since 1990 after they were forced from office or left voluntarily. The overall sum of stolen assets by these 25, their families and associates is estimated at almost USD 140 billion.