About

The Congressional Counter-Kleptocracy Caucus educates and mobilizes members of Congress on the cross-jurisdictional nature of foreign corruption and identify bipartisan opportunities to work together to curb kleptocracy.

Focus

The Counter-Kleptocracy Caucus leads the fight against kleptocracy, an authoritarian governance model in which political leaders routinely engage in illicit self-enrichment, maintain power through corrupt patronage networks, exploit rule of law jurisdictions to conceal and protect stolen assets, and use strategic corruption as a tool of foreign policy.

Efforts

Because the struggle against foreign corruption spans several of committees of jurisdiction, the caucus will allow members and staff to share perspectives and coordinate efforts to confront the growing threat of foreign corruption. The Caucus holds periodic hearings, sponsors informal roundtables and staff briefings with leading experts, coordinates oversight letters and legislative initiatives, and facilitates information-sharing across committees.

Victories

The Caucus has been central in the passage of key legislation:

• The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, passed into law last year, criminalized the demand side of foreign bribery. It has been described as “without question…the most consequential anti-foreign-bribery law passed in almost 50 years.”
• The Oligarch Assets for Ukrainian Victory Act enabled illicit assets recovered from Russian oligarchs to be sent to Ukraine as aid.
• The Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act served as the first-ever U.S. law to respond to the abuse of INTERPOL by authoritarian regimes.