The trail of “dirty money” in the possession of corrupt public officials has long led to Switzerland’s financial centre. It’s one that the government has tried to clean up. Popular uprisings, leaked documents and collaborative media investigations: in recent decades, all of these have led to the discovery of suspicious Swiss bank accounts. In 2011, for example, as protestors across the Arab world rose up against authoritarian regimes, Switzerland quickly froze hundreds of millions of francs in accounts linked to then-embattled leaders including Bashar al-Assad (Syria) and Muammar al-Gaddafi (Libya). From Haiti and Peru in Latin America to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, by way of Angola and Mali in Africa, several other foreign officials are suspected of having transferred funds stolen from the state to Swiss banks. In 2022, following revelations from the #SuisseSecrets media investigation, Swissinfo highlighted some of the most notorious cases of kleptocracy touching ...
