As they govern or misgovern their respective countries under one political system or the other, several world leaders, while embedded in power, are wealth accumulators that run into millions and billions of dollars.
From Putin to Jordan’s King Abdullah, Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta to Chile’s head Sebastian Pinera are among 35 moguls worldwide who dumped their loot on the soils of so-called open and democratic nations.
There is no real estate registry in Britain, the USA, and many other rich countries in the West where expensive real estate is bought with hidden fortunes by the political elite globally ruling the impoverished nations.
The latest revelations come from the Pandora Papers, a diligently worked out investigative journalism by 600 scribes from 117 countries, who looked at the mounting wealth of the most influential people on this planet.
Corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, or simply taking whatever money these leaders wish to grab from their state treasuries constitute the ways in wealth build-up hidden far away from the impoverished lands.
Offshore accounts and offshore trusts get set up to buy hundreds of millions of dollars of property in safe heavens at the expense of their poverty-stricken citizens.
How much wealth do these leaders need for their luxury tastes or wastes? Do the various political systems, socialism, communism or capitalism, fail their lofty commitments and promises? Or the ethics of governing are irrelevant ever since spirituality and religion became taboos in politics?
-Promod Puri
Promod Puri.com 