Episodes
This episode from the margins of the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Washington DC features Shannon Green, Executive Director of USAID's Anti-Corruption Task Force. Shannon talks to Liz Dávid-Barrett about the agency's new anti-corruption strategy. They also focus on the challenge of fighting kleptocracies and USAID's new dekleptification guide. Here are links to the resources discussed USAID anti-corruption strategy: https://www.usaid.gov/anti-corruption/policy USAID...
Published 12/19/22
We are delighted to announce that the Centre for the Study of Corruption (CSC) at the University of Sussex is the new home of Kickback. The centre will be hosting the podcast over the next three years. We look forward to continuing the great work of the original Kickback team and welcoming an interesting range of guests from across the anti-corruption community. Robert Barrington talks more about the handover in a blog for the CSC (link below). In this episode, Matthew Stephenson talks to...
Published 12/06/22
Ahead of the Qatar World Cup, we welcome Maggie Murphy, CEO of Lewes Football Club and a former Senior Global Advocacy Manager at Transparency International. She speaks to Dan Hough, self-professed football obsessive and Professor of Politics at Sussex University. Maggie takes us through her journey from anti-corruption campaigning to football management. She and Dan discuss the ethical problems affecting football, including the FIFA scandal, and how these issues exacerbate inequity between...
Published 11/17/22
In the first of a series of episodes hosted by the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex, we welcome Daniel Kaufmann. Daniel is a senior fellow at Results for Development (R4D) and President Emeritus at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). He is also a former Director of the World Bank where he headed programmes related to corruption and governance. He is well-known in the anti-corruption field for his work co-developing leading global indices, including...
Published 11/04/22
We welcome Andrii Borovyk (@Borovyk_UA), Executive Director of Transparency International Ukraine, and Gretta Fenner (@gretweets), the managing director of the Basel Institute for Governance. Andrii and Gretta describe their background and how they ended up in their current positions. How the invasion changed anti-corruption work within Ukraine, how reconstruction efforts have already begun, and which corruption risks need to be taken care of to ensure effective reconstruction efforts,...
Published 07/26/22
We welcome Mihaly Fazekas, assistant professor at the Central European University, Department of Public Policy, who works on a range of topics related to corruption. The interview covers how how his own personal experience with bad public infrastructure inspired him to conduct corruption research, why he believes that corruption research would benefit from a better understanding of what are actually ymeasuring when we study corruption and the importance of investigative journalism (for...
Published 07/06/22
Michel Sapin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Sapin) served as a Minister of Finance in France from 1992 to 1993 and 2014 to 2017 and now works as a Senior Advisor for Franklin Lawyers with a specialization in anti-corruption laws. Valentina Lana is a Lecturer at the Sciences Po law school in Paris. Matthew Stephenson interviews the two to discuss the French anti-corruption law known as the la loi Sapin II. They cover why France’s approach towards anti-corruption changed when Michel...
Published 06/20/22
We are thrilled to welcome Ray Fisman (@RFisman), Professor of Economics at Boston University, long-standing corruption expert and author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations (https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691144696/economic-gangsters) (with Ed Miguel) and Corruption: What everybody needs to know (https://books.google.de/books/about/Corruption.html?id=XdVKDgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y) (with Miriam Golden). Matthew and Ray sat down to discuss...
Published 05/23/22
Today, we welcome investigative journalist Frederik Obermaier (@f_obermaier). In the interview, we cover the Suisse Secrets (https://www.occrp.org/en/suisse-secrets/). Frederik also mentions the China Cables uncovering surveillance and mass internment without charge or trial of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China (https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/). We also discuss the Swiss Bank Secrecy Law and its infamous article 47 undermining Media Freedom in...
Published 05/09/22
We welcome back Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International’s United States Office, for the third time. Find out more about the coalition at us.transparency.org (00:40) - Progress the U.S. is making on the fight against global corruption, and the role of U.S. entities in facilitating corruption (05:19) - The White House Anti Corruption strategy document (“United States Strategy on Countering Corruption”:...
Published 04/26/22
In this special episode, we welcome Anastasia Kirilenko to the podcast. She is an investigative journalist and the co-author of the documentary "Putin and the Mafia" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttM-O-j1AVs&t=462s). (02:55) - Kirilenko's background (06:59) - Documentary "Putin and the Mafia" (10:55) - Media restrictions in Russia (15:50) - The role of the civil society in Russia (20:32) - The role of oligarchs in Russian politics (28:24) - Informing Russian citizens through short...
Published 04/11/22
In this special episode, Oksana Huss, who has been working on anticorruption in Ukraine for the last 10 years, talks with Svitlana Musiiaka, who is a lawyer based in Ukraine and Head of Research and Policy at NAKO. Musiiaka was previously Head of Corruption Detection in the Ministry of Health, and worked with the Prosecutors Office in Ukraine. (01:32) - Musiiaka’s career (06:37) - What is NAKO, and how it fits into Ukraine’s defence structure (https://nako.org.ua/en) (13:27) -...
Published 04/04/22
We welcome Oksana Nesterenko as part of our series on Ukraine. She is an Associate Professor of Law and the Executive Director of the Anti-corruption Research and Education Centre at National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. (01:06) - Nesterenko’s interest in anti-corruption and her work as an academic researcher and advocate (02:39) - The war for values (11:00) - The cultural and political threat of Ukraine; joining NATO and the threat to Putin’s regime (15:56) - Putin’s money and...
Published 03/23/22
As a continuation on our series about Ukraine, we welcome Igor logvinenko, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College. (01:14) - Igor’s background and his book, “Global Finance, Local Control: Corruption and Wealth in Contemporary Russia” (06:51) - Russia’s historical corruption and current financial integration into world business. (15:20) - The mark of change in a stabilised regime, British Petroleum existing Russian investments (18:15) - The impact of...
Published 03/15/22
We welcome Inna Melnykovska from the Political Science Department at Central European University. She is an expert on state business relations and crony capitalism in Eastern Europe. (01:50) - The direction of Inna’s research (06:00) - Political pluralism and the competition of big business in Ukrainian politics (08:50) - Putin and Ukraine’s competitive oligarchy (10:14) - The similarities and nuances between Russia and Ukraine (12:15) - President Zelenskyy’s fight against crony...
Published 03/04/22
We are joined by Oksana Huss, postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bologna, and Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez, Associate Professor and specialist in anti-corruption studies at Osaka University, where we discuss the unfolding events in Ukraine through the lenses of corruption. We continue to think about the Ukrainian people, their suffering and the tragic loss of life during these recent events. (01:00) - Introduction (03:15) - Huss’ background of anti-corruption in Ukraine. Ukraine’s...
Published 02/28/22
00:00: Introduction and the beginnings of Caryn’s interest in corruption in Africa 04:24: Caryn discusses the principle agent problem from her paper “Corruption and collective action” with Heather Marquette (https://www.cmi.no/publications/5544-corruption-and-collective-action) 12:00: Caryn recognises three lenses of viewing corruption and fits them together: principle agent theory, collective action theory, and the functionality of corruption in solving problems 16:00: How to (not) craft...
Published 02/14/22
We welcome Dr. Torplus ‘Nick’ Yomnak, whose anti-corruption work in Thailand has received international recognition, including the United States State Department’s 2021 Anti-Corruption Champion’s Award. He is the Founder and Chief Advisor of HAND Social Enterprise and Assistant Professor at Chulalongkorn University. 01:33: What led Nick to focus on corruption in research and activism 06:00: How anti-corruption research can be put into practice 10:18: Nick’s research; using open-source data...
Published 01/31/22
00:00: Introduction and what sparked Liz’s interest in corruption 02:20: What is state capture (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capture) 05:16: Liz discusses how state capture has been politically-driven in more recent developments 08:30: Can we compare state capture to an extreme form of lobbyism? Liz goes deeper into the definition of state capture and hones in on the intentionality aspect of state capture 10:58: Exposing machine politics: the Brazilian Car Wash Scandal...
Published 01/17/22
We welcome Casey Michelle, journalist and author of American Kleptocracy: How the US Created the World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History. 00:56: Casey’s background and what let his interest in illicit finance, money laundering and kleptocracy 01:30: Casey discusses living in Kazakhstan as a school teacher and the country’s ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s corrupt government that sparked his interest in the topic...
Published 12/13/21
Dan Hough is Professor of Politics (Politics), Head of Department of Politics (Politics) at the University of Sussex, founding director of the Center for the Study of Corruption and a football (soccer) aficionado. Find out how Dan’s 14th birthday played a pivotal role in him getting interested in corruption research. Spoiler alert, it includes Ben Johnson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnson_(Canadian_sprinter)) In his early work, Dan studied corruption in German politics, including...
Published 11/29/21
We welcome one of the most important voices in the academic (anti-)corruption field: Michael Johnston, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Colgate University, who has written numerous books on corruption. (https://www.colgate.edu/about/directory/mjohnston). The interview covers Michael’s journey of becoming a corruption research pioneer, his conceptual framework of syndromes of corruption and how they might inform anti-corruption policies. Matthew and Michael discuss the developments...
Published 11/15/21
We welcome Peter Y. Solmssen who serves as the Chairman of the Non-trial Resolutions Subcommittee of the International Bar Association. The interview covers his unique role in serving as the general counsel after the allegations of foreign bribery against Siemens surfaced. Peter shares his views on the Siemens case in general and weighs in on why a successful and large company like Siemens developed systematic bribery schemes in the first place. Matthew and Peter discuss the benefits and...
Published 11/01/21
We welcome Will Fitzgibbon (@WillFitzgibbon) to talk about the largest collaborative journalistic efforts on the Pandora Papers, revealing “inner workings of a shadow economy that benefits the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else.” More information on Pandora Papers: https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/global-investigation-tax-havens-offshore/ Will mentions previous data leaks: For more of our content on data leaks, check out our episodes with Frederik...
Published 10/18/21
This week we welcome Fernanda Odilla (@fe_odilla) and Anwesha Chakraborty (@anwesha8984) to talk about their research on how to use technology to assist bottom-up anti-corruption efforts. You can find more about their and Alice Mattoni’s work via https://site.unibo.it/bit-act/en/team/researchers What we cover in the podcast: Alice Mattoni’s BIT-ACT project, find more about it in our previous podcast with Alice:...
Published 10/04/21