Tom Cardamone, President and CEO of Global Financial Integrity, joins the podcast to discuss the regulatory and enforcement challenges associated with flags of convenience. These range from trafficked labor to environmental violations, and Tom highlights the inherent tension between substantial tax incentives on one hand and accountability on the other.

Leonid Volkov joins the podcast to talk about Putin&rsquos obsessive campaign against Navalny, who was first poisoned with Novichok and later imprisoned. Volkov also discusses the deep roots of corruption in Russia and how the West can support Russians determined to end the looting of their country.

John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter discusses the working paper he co-authored for the National Endowment for Democracy: &ldquoPaying for a World Class Affiliation: Reputation Laundering in the University Sector of Open Societies.&rdquo He shows how vulnerable universities are to abuse by kleptocrats seeking to shape the conversation, often quite subtly, about their governments and their legacies. This research was undertaken for NED and under the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence project.

Omar Alshogre, refugee, political activist with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and Georgetown University alumni, shares the wrenching story of his three years as a political prisoner in the worst of Syria&rsquos prisons. He discusses the role that extortion plays there, simultaneously delegitimizing the regime further and propping it up financially.Episode resources:

• Mentioned at (00:33): The Syrian Emergency Task Force
• Mentioned at (00:45): Omar's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 11 March 2020

Josh Rudolph at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund discusses how we should approach corruption and kleptocracy from a policy perspective and why Treasury needs to &lsquoget with the program.&rsquo